Amherst professor Austin Sarat discusses President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse President Joe Biden’s mass clemency for federal death row inmates, specifically through an executive order mandating their transfer to the harsh ADX supermax prison. Professor Sarat argues that this move is a politically motivated act of cruelty lacking legal and penological justification, and urges the courts to uphold due process and human rights, even for those convicted of serious crimes.
UNLV Boyd School of Law professor Leslie C. Griffin comments on a case currently before the US Supreme Court—Madison v. Alabama—in which the Court will consider whether a death row inmate may constitutionally be executed despite his advanced dementia causing him not to recall the crime for which he is to be executed. Griffin highlights the ethical and legal issues raised in that case and addresses considerations on both sides.
