Volume 106
Issue
3
Date
2018

“Waiting on Death”: Nathan Dunlap and the Cruel Effect of Uncertainty

by Peter Baumann

This Note uses an originalist lens to view Nathan Dunlap’s story as a particularly egregious example of the cruelty inherent in our capital punishment scheme. It acknowledges that much of the cruel uncertainty surrounding the death penalty may be due to constitutional and legal safeguards imposed to ensure the state does not execute an innocent person, yet it considers whether the modern death penalty violates the original meaning of the Eighth Amendment as interpreted by Stinneford. Finally, this Note argues that we may have to choose between this quest for perfection in the administration of capital punishment and avoiding the imposition of cruel and unusual uncertainty.

Keep Reading