Search Results for: \"mental illness\"

Uganda made international headlines this week as its Constitutional Court upheld the bulk of a draconian law that would impose the death sentence for “aggravated homosexuality.” But for LGBTQ+ activists within the country, the death penalty isn’t the only specter that looms in the judgment’s aftermath. Over the past 15 years, Ugandan authorities have endeavored [...]

The US prides itself on being a nation built on freedom, justice, and individual rights. And yet the evolution of its system of mass incarceration — a system that cannot be defined without reference to shocking racial disparities — seems to directly contradict these founding principles. The US prison population dwarfs those of nearly every other [...]

Publisher and activist Julian Assange appealed to London’s High Court this week in a last-ditch effort to avoid extradition to the US to face espionage charges. Following the hearing which spanned Tuesday and Wednesday, judges will consider whether Assange can appeal an earlier ruling ordering his extradition from the UK to the US, where he [...]

Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, found guilty of killing 77 people, mainly teenagers, in July 2011, lost his claim Thursday against the state to end his solitary confinement in prison. The trial for Breivik’s suit was held in January against the Norwegian Ministry of Justice over the conditions of his detention. The trial was [...]

The UK High Court ruled Tuesday that the Secretary of State for the Home Office unlawfully operated a “secret policy” that saw more than 1,500 people who were the victims of modern slavery denied leave to remain. The Claimant, known as XY, was kidnapped and enslaved by a gang in Albania, his home country. The [...]

On Jan. 25, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) plans to execute Kenneth Smith by forcing him to breathe pure nitrogen gas, an untested execution method with profound legal and ethical consequences. Death penalty abolitionists worldwide have railed against this form of capital punishment, but these efforts have thus far failed to alter the state’s [...]

A Norwegian court on Monday began hearing a lawsuit brought by Fjotolf Hansen, previously known as Anders Behring Breivik, over his prison conditions, according to local media. Breivik sought to sue the Norwegian Ministry of Justice, alleging that the prison conditions imposed on him violated his human rights. Hansen set off a car bomb in [...]

In a distressing and seemingly interminable saga within the UK justice system, individuals sentenced to a mere two years have found themselves ensnared in unyielding decades-long stints of confinement—a grim consequence of the since-abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) policy. In 2020, Lord Brown, a former justice of the UK Supreme Court wrote he had “no [...]

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) released their annual report on Friday, reporting that for the first time more Americans believe the death penalty is administered unfairly than those who believe otherwise. The report also revealed that there were more death penalty sentences imposed than executions carried out during 2023. A majority of US state [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 6-1 on Friday that the mandatory minimum sentence for child luring is unconstitutional as it violates the right against cruel and unusual punishment under Section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom. The judgment arose out of two separate cases of child luring, one with a sentence [...]