“Life ‘Or’ Death”

The title of this post is the title of this new article authored by Marlee Russell now available on SSRN. Though focused on Mississippi law, the issue of “or” in state constitutions is one that arises in a number of other states. Here is this article’s abstract:

This Article argues that the death penalty violates the Mississippi State Constitution because of the state’s prohibition of cruel “or” unusual punishments. By using the word “or” instead of “and,” Mississippi guarantees its citizens with a broader protection than the Eighth Amendment guarantees.  The different language should cause punishments, specifically the death penalty, to be evaluated under a separate standard for each prong of this protection.

Part I of this paper will argue that lethal injection is torture, explaining the methods, procedures, and associated risks during administration of the drugs.  Part II will show how lethal injection violates the Mississippi State Constitution due to the differences between conjunctive and disjunctive interpretations of the constitutional language.  Part III will prove that the remaining methods of execution in Mississippi violate the constitution because of their rare and unusual use in the state.  Part IV will suggest a new standard for evaluating if a punishment is cruel or unusual in Mississippi based on this language.