The Death Knell For the Death Penalty and the Significance of Global Realism to its Abolition from Glossip v. Gross to Brumfield v. Cain

The Supreme Court’s jurisprudence regarding the death penalty, whether or not cruel, has most certainly been unusual in the annals of criminal punishment. In the short span of four years, the Court foreclosed and then reopened this form of punishment in Furman v. Georgia and Gregg v. Georgia. One year later the Court would categorically exclude the punishment for the rape of an adult. Five years later the Court would again preclude the punishment, for any defendant convicted of felony-murder who did not participate or share in the homicidal act or intent. In 1986 the Court would struggle with the Orwellian issue of whether and how a person must be competent to be executed in Ford v. Wainwright. In 1989, in two cases decided on the same day, the Court refused to find that the “mentally retarded” or juveniles were categorically exempt from the death penalty, in opinions that both embodied the “national consensus” test for death penalty restrictions and questioned its exclusivity as the determinate measure of cruel and unusual punishment. In the decade that followed, the ground began to shift under the Court’s jurisprudence in a number of ways. Coalitions opposed to the death penalty in specific instances and in general expanded to encompass international human rights advocates dedicated as amicus curiae or pro bono counsel to highlight the United States’ growing isolation in its official acceptance of the punishment. In 2002, the landmark case of Atkins v. Virginia would invigorate categorical exclusions from the death penalty, recognizing that the “mentally retarded” could not be subject to the harshest form of punishment. Roper v. Simmons would add juvenile offenders to the categorical exclusions. In 2008, rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim’s death, was added as an offense which did not qualify for the death penalty. In a span of four years, the Court would expand protection of juvenile offenders from life without parole, first for non-homicidal offenses, then for any offense. In addition, the Court found itself mired after Furman in what one commentator has described as “an unparalleled level of constitutional micromanagement” as to how the death penalty can be imposed procedurally and when it can be imposed based on the nature of the offense and the status of the offender. For the October 2015 term, the Court granted certiorari in a consolidated trio of cases and an additional case raising such procedural issues. The Montgomery v. Louisiana decision on January 25, 2016 applied the prohibition on life without parole for juvenile offenders retroactively, releasing prisoners who had spent their entire “adult” lives behind bars. Against this backdrop, the Court’s 2015 decision in Glossip v. Gross is a notable victory, as it were, for the death penalty. In the almost inevitable 5-4 split, the Court refused to find that the specific method of execution, a three-drug protocol begun with midazolam, constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The decision is at best a Pyrrhic victory for the death penalty, however, given the specificity of the method in question. More importantly, the majority opinion was largely eclipsed by Justice Breyer’s dissent, joined by Justice Ginsburg, which called for total abolition of the death penalty. This article also seeks to demonstrate that the opinion exemplifies the need for what might be termed “global realism” in recognizing that consideration of international legal norms and political realities is unavoidable in the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence. The method of execution itself was the unavoidable result of a refusal of drug suppliers outside the U.S. to continue supplying drugs for execution purposes, and Justice Breyer’s dissent brought to the forefront once again the isolation of the United States’ acceptance of the death penalty. Glossip v. Gross, thus, may be the beginning of the end of the death penalty due to a confluence of a shift in constitutional legal analysis from the “national consensus” analysis to proportionality and penological purposes served, empirical evidence that there is no national consensus in favor of the death penalty, a renewed recognition of the unreliability of decision-making whatever procedural prerequisites the Court imposes, and an overdue, forthright recognition of the significance of international norms and practices in determining “evolving standards of decency” under the Eighth Amendment. This recognition is explicit in Justice Breyer’s dissent, but also fundamental to evaluating what Justice Kennedy’s position might be on abolishing the death penalty, notwithstanding his joining the five justices in Glossip v. Gross

Study of high performance alloy electroforming

Nickel-manganese electroformed specimens and nickel-cobalt-manganese samples were heat treated at 343 C (650 F) for comparison of room temperature ductility with that observed for alloys heat treated at 315.6C (600 F). All heat treatments were for 24 hours. This heat treatment temperature increase generally did not result in significant improvements in ductility. However, increases in yield strength - with slight decreases in tensile strengths - were noted for the nickel-manganese and nickel-cobalt-manganese alloys. For the case of employing fairly high manganese contents in the electrolyte and countering ensuing high tensile stress in the alloy by saccharin additions to the bath, it was noted that nickel-manganese alloys with over 0.4% by weight manganese retained high ultimate and yield strengths after the 343 C (650 F) heat treatment for 24 hours. Elongations were still lower than desired. For alloys with less than 0.4% by weight manganese this heat treatment provided excellent ductility, but very significant reductions in ultimate and yield strengths were noted

Study of high performance alloy electroforming

Using the two nickel-manganese alloy electroforming baths of near identical compositions, panels were electroformed under the same deposition parameters of current density, bath temperature, pH, and pulse plating conditions of duty cycle and frequency. By changing the electrolyte agitation conditions, significant effects on mechanical properties were noted. Since electrolyte agitation conditions on the typical flat panels studied to date will not be identical to those existing on a complex curved shape such as the SSME combustion chamber simulation, it is most important that these effects be evaluated prior to Phase B studies. The subscale chamber has been fabricated and shield support tooling is being made. Electroforming of optimized alloy test bars is being deferred until the electrolyte agitation effects are more fully appraised

Study of high performance alloy electroforming

The first series of heat treated nickel manganese alloys are tested for mechanical properties at temperatures of 148.9 C (300 F) and 260 C (500 F). All material receives the same heat treatment in order to provide a common basis for comparison of results. Mechanical property performance improves with increasing manganese content in the alloy. Although all manganese bearing alloy is significantly superior to conventional electroformed nickel, samples containing over 3000 ppm manganese display outstanding ultimate and yield strengths while maintaining reasonably satisfactory ductility. Alloy containing over 6000 ppm of manganese is very competitive to Inconel 718 (mill annealed and age hardened) at all temperatures of interest, although ductility is not as great in the electrodeposited counterpart

Young people in care’s perspective on their psychological adjustment as an addition to the BERRI questionnaire by Amy Malone

Children Looked After (CLA) are known to be a vulnerable group with high levels of psychological need and potential for adverse adult outcomes. Given these factors and the ever-increasing demand and pressures on children’s social care, the need for effective mental health provision for this group has never been more evident. An integral part of such provision is outcome measurement. Outcome measures are tools that can be used to identify and quantify psychological need, understand the effectiveness of interventions and services, and hold practitioners to account. There are a range of measures currently used across the sector, but many have significant shortcomings when it comes to their use with care experienced young people. BERRI is a tool that was designed by clinical psychology professionals specifically for use with the CLA population. However, its current design relies entirely on perspectives of parents or carers, rather than eliciting the perspective of the young person themselves. This is at odds with increasing awareness and policy focus regarding the inclusion and empowerment of CLA voices in decisions made about their care. The present study therefore aimed to gather care experienced perspectives on their psychological adjustment as an addition to the BERRI questionnaire. The specific research question was: What observable markers do young people in care think indicate strengths or improvement/deterioration in their psychological wellbeing? After consultation with a care-experienced panel, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight individuals who were either currently in care or recent care leavers. Thematic analysis was conducted on the interview transcripts and five superordinate themes were created: Strong and Stable Relationships, Coping with Adversity, A Sense of Agency, Control of Emotions and Behaviour and Interests and Talents. These findings are discussed in the context of the existing literature and their implications for practice and future research

The concept of sexual exploitation in legislation relating to persons with intellectual disability

The focus of this paper is on the use of the concept of sexual exploitation in legislation concerning sexual expression by persons with mental impairment, with particular emphasis on persons with intellectual disability. Two main statutory approaches have been adopted in Australian jurisdictions. The first is prohibition of sexual acts between a person with intellectual disability and others who, by virtue of their employment, are in a position of ascendancy over that person. The second is the prohibition of sexually exploitative acts by any person towards a person with an intellectual disability. The major aim in this article is to critically examine these approaches and evaluate them according to the standards of being non-discriminatory, minimally restrictive of rights, and enforceable. It is argued that comprehensively cataloguing sexually exploitative acts is untenable, with the result that prohibition of all sexual exploitation is unenforceable. The alternative, namely legislation that prohibits sexual relations with any person employed to render any kind of service to the intellectually disabled person, would further restrict an already limited number of potential sexual partners. We suggest that a more useful approach would be to prohibit sexual activity in one-on-one relationships whose scope is commonly understood to exclude such acts, while allowing relations between workers or caregivers and the persons to whom they do not directly render services. This mechanism would have to be narrowly defined to have the desired effect of affording protection to vulnerable persons while preserving their right to sexual expression

Development and validation of methods for man-made machine interface evaluation

The alternate methods of conducting a man-machine interface evaluation are classified as static and dynamic, and are evaluated. A dynamic evaluation tool is presented to provide for a determination of the effectiveness of the man-machine interface in terms of the sequence of operations (task and task sequences) and in terms of the physical characteristics of the interface. This dynamic checklist approach is recommended for shuttle and shuttle payload man-machine interface evaluations based on reduced preparation time, reduced data, and increased sensitivity of critical problems

Using the interpersonal reactivity index to assess empathy in violent offenders

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), developed by Davis (1980), provides an excellent multidimensional measure of empathy for the general adult population, the domain for which it was developed. Its use has subsequently expanded into other areas, for example criminal psychology. In this domain empathy is a critical variable in theoretical accounts of criminality and particularly of violence. For many researchers within the field of criminal psychology, the IRI has become the instrument of choice for the assessment of empathy. However, the psychometric properties of the scale, when used with a criminal population, have not been investigated. This paper reports the results of an investigation into the reliability and component structure of the IRI using a sample of violent offenders. The Personal Distress subscale was found not to be reliable when used in an offender population. Furthermore, when used to assess offenders, principle components analysis did not confirm the four-subscale structure of the IRI. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed in relation to offender assessment in general

Life cycle and host specificity of Vairimorpha plodiae (Microspora)

Imperial Users onl