“The question here is whether three convicted rapists will go scot-free inside the military,” he said. News • 09.24.2020 Is a Life in Solitary “Cruel and Unusual?” In Pennsylvania, the heart of solitary confinement reform, an intellectually disabled inmate says he’s been held in wretched isolation for 36 years. By giving us your email, you are opting in to the Early Bird Brief. But the arguments in the case weren’t made about time limits, per se. . Would he care if he knew the lungs of inmates were filling with fluid during lethal injections, enough to make those inmates feel as if they were drowning? Now the government is seeking to appeal that decision, on the grounds that in passing the 2006 NDAA, Congress never intended to leave a 20-year gap in its determination that military rapes should be prosecuted no matter how much time has passed. “Why would Congress want to make it impossible to prosecute rape at all, simply because this court held that you couldn’t impose the death penalty?” he said, adding that the appropriate punishment and the appropriate statute of limitations are “two distinct issues.". Forget lethal injection, he says. Such punishment as would amount to torture or barbarity, any cruel and degrading punishment not known to the Common Law, or any fine, penalty, confinement, or treatment that is so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the moral sense of the community.. The case, involving a teenager who killed his grandfather, is the latest in a series of cases on the constitutionality of harsh punishments … DENNO: Somebody might think that suffocation certainly constitutes pain, and another judge may think it's not - that suffocation alone doesn't qualify as severe pain and needless suffering. Unlike many departments, the agency is exempt from releasing records like bodycam footage. Edmo sued, saying that the failure to provide the surgery violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But an NPR investigation reveals a much different story. (SOUNDBITE OF BRAD MEHLDAU'S "OLD WEST") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. STOUT: There's over 1,200 different items here. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Where you headed, sir? STOUT: What is the system that takes 35 years? For this research, I conducted an analysis of ten Supreme Court cases which evaluated the constitutionality of a punishment within the parameters of the Cruel and Unusual Punishment … CHANG: As Stout has watched judges struggle with that discussion about cruel and unusual punishment, he wonders why they don't see the simple solution, the one he believes would cut through the endless debate. CALDWELL: Yeah. “Military rape can destroy a platoon, it can undermine forces' readiness, it can even damage foreign relations. CHANG: If this whole debate is about a more humane death, Stout says, why wouldn't a precisely aimed bullet get the job done? ALLEN BOHNERT: The autopsy records are genuine, legitimate, unassailable scientific evidence that shows what is actually happening to these inmates as they're being executed. But they have their own argument for why the court need not reach the constitutional question in their cases. That body sided with him, overturning his conviction in early 2019. at 639. Cruel and unusual punishment is laying out there in the cemetery. Now, lawyers for the state declined to speak with me, but they argue in court that the way Ohio executes inmates is entirely constitutional and that the drugs they use block any pain the inmate might feel. 19-7369. Courts are taking a closer look at something that ALL THINGS CONSIDERED has also spent the last two years investigating - evidence that inmates' lungs are filling with fluid while they are still alive in the execution chamber. CHANG: Norman and Mary Jane raised three sons together, who all happened to be out of the house on the night of May 14, 1984. Get the military's most comprehensive news and information every morning. Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. STOUT: That sniper can be anyone that belongs to a rifle club or has qualified as an expert in the military, which includes me. "The Eighth Amendment’s history and original understanding are of vital importance to this case." An NPR investigation follows the legal battle unfolding over evidence that many inmates' lungs fill with fluid as they're executed by lethal injection. Well, legally speaking, that is a question without an easy answer. Your support makes this possible. Medical experts say many are likely experiencing the sensation of drowning before they die, even though it can look like they're just sleeping. STOUT: That bullet is still in there - full, complete bullet. It's uncontested that it would be literally painless or very nearly so. Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase in common law describing punishment that is considered unacceptable due to the suffering, pain, or humiliation it inflicts on the person subjected to the sanction. As Morris explained, the cruel-or-unusual-punishment clause only prohibits certain modes or methods of punishment and because “[i]mprisonment . We have obtained the largest collection of lethal injection autopsies ever assembled in the U.S. And what this collection shows is that in the vast majority of executions, inmates' lungs are filling with fluid while they are still alive. That's when two young men appeared on the Stouts' doorstep. Plus, updates in the Navy's run-ins with Iranian ships in the Middle East, and an Army recruit who hijacked a bus. So all rape is heinous, but we would say particularly so in the military.”. Though criminal cases can scramble traditional ideological lines, the decision highlights the longstanding divide on the court when it comes to Eighth Amendment cruel and unusual punishment cases. … To reach such a conclusion, the court created a circuit split, substituted the medical conclusions of federal judges for the clinical judgments of prisoners’ treating physicians, When CAAF overturned Briggs’ court-martial, the new precedent applied to two other Air Force rape convictions: Master Sgt. I understood good lines and design. Cruel and unusual punishment is laying out there in the cemetery. Then you find out he hasn’t received any of his mail in over a month. The court also won’t consider the appeal from Alabama death row inmate Willie B. And so for him, that alternative method is the firing squad. 260 14th St. NW So nationwide, it is still constitutional to execute inmates even if their lungs fill with fluid as they die. I had been a draftsman. STOUT: I heard four shots because I couldn't shut my ears. Given how difficult it can be for survivors to come forward, he added, the barrier of a statute of limitations would be counter-productive to the goal of getting more reports and more convictions, in the larger Defense Department push to bring down its sexual assault numbers. May 5, 2020 /. He's 90 now and lives in New Concord, Ohio, just a few miles from the house he and his wife Mary Jane used to share. Apr 19, 2020 at 3:00 PM . STOUT: Might have been. He is emaciated, and slowly losing hope. He's not going to complain. It's an old Freemason lodge that's been converted into a museum of sorts, jam-packed with shelves and shelves of the Holly Hobbie figurines she once treasured. Stay at home. I heard almost the exact same thing at the courthouse in Dayton. Virginia,” the 2002 ruling that executing the intellectually disabled violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. CALDWELL: It's evidence we've seen in our investigation, too. CALDWELL: That's lawyer Allen Bohnert. Michigan prisoners call coronavirus exposure ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ in lawsuit. Then Norman lunged at one of the men. CHANG: And as it turns out, on this issue, Stout has an unexpected ally. In his questioning of Vladeck, Roberts wondered whether the Coker decision should have had the second-order effect of removing the state of limitations on a military rape case. Yesterday, we laid out the science behind our findings, and today, we bring you the legal fight over pulmonary edema as judges grapple with the definition of cruel and unusual punishment. That and more on Defense News Weekly for May 15, 2021. whether the military can prosecute rape cases that occurred between 1986 and 2006, rape has, at times, been punished by death in the military, Here’s what you need to know about the biggest update to UCMJ in decades, Satellites extend firing range and new Marine training | Defense News Weekly Full Episode 5.15.21, Money Minute — Strategies to save for a rainy day and save for retirement, Top RAF Officer lays out UK’s military space ambitions, USMC explores extended infantry training | Military Times Reports, F-15QA bound for Qatar declares emergency upon landing, leaves runway in Illinois; USAF pilots eject safely, Guard leaders eye end to Capitol Hill, border security missions, Never too old? The goal of this study is to determine how ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ is shaped as a social construct when applied to cases concerning conditions of confinement. Briggs refers to former Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Briggs, whom a military panel found guilty of rape in a 2014 court-martial. In early 2019, the district court here in Dayton took Bohnert's side. Months after that horrific night, a man named John Stumpf was sentenced to death for the murder of Mary Jane Stout. He is dead. We never know when we're going. We reviewed hundreds of autopsies from around the country and found inmates' lungs filling with fluid in 84% of the cases. Court documents show there are just a handful of known cases the services could try that allegedly occurred between 1986 and 2006, including Collins and Daniels. Advisors: Anne Nurse. STOUT: I'm trying my best, even though I've had a heart attack. CHANG: Norman has marveled at how the courtroom debate over cruel and unusual punishment has stalled justice for him because this case involving John Stumpf is now at the forefront of a new legal battle unfolding over lethal injection. Student: Libbie Main. Briggs first attempted to appeal the ruling with the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, according to court documents, citing several procedural errors, one of which was that at the time of the rape, the five-year statute of limitations was still in place. You have to admire that that can get away with 35 years of doing nothing. The 8th Amendment has become a key issue in a Supreme Court case … I couldn't figure out why, but I'm extremely proud that she did. BOHNERT: These inmates are fighting and struggling, gasping to breathe as if they are drowning and suffocating, being waterboarded. Vladeck’s point was that, because civilian legal precedent holds that the death penalty is “disproportionate and excessive” for the rape of an adult, rape cannot be considered punishable by death under UCMJ, and therefore until Congress specifically passed its' 2006 law banning any time constraints, the five-year statute of limitations on military rape charges was legitimate. But the AFCCA struck down his complaint, on the grounds that his defense did not raise the issue of the statute at his original trial. CHANG: They shot him in the head again. After Norman let them in, they suddenly drew guns and announced it was a robbery. CHANG: The men asked to use the telephone. Section 17. DEBORAH DENNO: Judges may vary on how one views pain, period. Satellites extend the firing range for the Army, and the Corps tests out extended infantry training to create more well-rounded Marines. Share Tweet Email. And he says what's actually happening is akin to torture. CHANG: But I wanted to ask Stout about the findings of our investigation and … And in recent months, the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed federal executions to resume. That was a time when military legal precedent called for a five-year statute of limitations on rape charges. NOAH CALDWELL, BYLINE: I'm in the federal courthouse in Dayton, Ohio, and a team of lawyers representing John Stumpf is rolling boxes of documents through security. A now-empty cell block in Jackson prison. This is a condition known as pulmonary edema, and signs of it are present in 84% of the autopsies a team at ALL THINGS CONSIDERED collected over the past two years. Maintain social distance. And he likened it to, quote, "waterboarding." Minor: Political Science. And citing that decision, the governor of Ohio then delayed all upcoming executions, including John Stumpf's. Richard Collins, who raped an airman in 2000, and Lt. Col. Humphrey Daniels, convicted of raping a civilian in 1998. CHANG: But I wanted to ask Stout about the findings of our investigation and the evidence presented in court in Dayton. They argue that during lethal injections, inmates' lungs are filling with fluid and that the drugs don't block any of that pain, which they say is a clear violation of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. BOHNERT: He would be dead before his brain would be able to process the pain of being hit with a bullet. But if he's going to argue that lethal injection is cruel and unusual, he's required by the courts to identify an alternative method that would be less painful. It's a condition called pulmonary edema, which you wouldn't expect to see in most autopsies. And, boy, I work cheap. CHANG: Meanwhile, the legal battle over pulmonary edema continues in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. Wall, citing conversations with the prosecution in the Briggs case, responded that giving the military free rein to prosecute sexual assaults is part of the bigger picture. CALDWELL: That's Allen Bohnert again - remember, the lawyer for the man convicted of murdering Norman Stout's wife. And the case in Ohio shows just how subjective these evaluations of pain can be from court to court. Instead, attorneys for the government and the defense in United States v. Briggs opted to make their cases in relation to the 8th Amendment, and whether legal precedent during those years held that rape in the military was a crime punishable by death, and therefore a crime that had no statute of limitations according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It held that a single-drug execution protocol (pentobarbitol) does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. A sign at the Parnall Correctional Facility near Jackson on Tuesday, April 14, 2020. “[T]he line between being a juvenile and an adult was drawn for cruel and unusual punishment purposes at eighteen years of age.” State v. Seats, 865 N.W.2d 545, 556 (Iowa 2015) (discussing Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 574 (2005)). STOUT: There is absolutely no suffering whatsoever. Cruel and unusual punishments shall not be inflicted, but all penalties shall be propor-tioned to the offense.—In all criminal cases whatever, the jury shall have the right to determine the law, and the facts under the direction of the Court as to the law, and the right of new trial, as in civil cases. CHANG: So what kind of pain is acceptable during an execution? She says there's never been a coherent constitutional standard for assessing pain - one that spells out, like, how long can the pain last, or, when does the method violate our sense of decency? Shelter in place. Cruel and Unusual Punishment. SCOTUS military rape case hinges on how ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ applies to troops. CALDWELL: So these autopsies have become a way for the dead to speak as witnesses for death row inmates still awaiting execution. alternative course of treatment would be “cruel and unusual punishment”—is as unjustified as it is unprecedented. The crux of the issue is twofold: The UCMJ holds that the most serious crimes can be punishable by death ― among them, rape and murder ― and they do not have a statute of limitations. Justice Scalia’s plurality would have focused almost exclusively on an assessment of what the state legislatures and Congress have done in setting an age limit for application of capital punishment. 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