| 25-6804 |
Robin O'Neill v. Jon Murad, Interim Commissioner, Vermont Department of Corrections |
Second Circuit |
2026-02-13 |
Pending |
IFP |
certificate-of-appealability constitutional-sentencing due-process habeas-corpus mandatory-life-sentence proportionality-review |
1. Does the mandatory life sentence of Vermont's aggravated murder statute, 13 V.S.A. 2311 (a)(3)(c), violate proportionality principles and due proce… |
| 25-5920 |
Donald Otis Williams v. Florida |
Florida |
2025-10-21 |
Denied |
IFP |
aggravating-factors constitutional-challenge death-penalty first-degree-murder legislative-expansion proportionality-review |
Whether the Florida Legislature's expansion of the applicability of our statute's "aggravating factors" requirements, Section 921.141(6), Florida Stat… |
| 25-5797 |
Leigha Page Ackerson v. Colorado |
Colorado |
2025-10-03 |
Denied |
Response WaivedIFP |
criminal-procedure felony-murder legislative-amendment life-without-parole proportionality-review sentencing |
1. Whether the procedure to affirm an LWOP
sentence for felony murder once the Felony Murder
bill 21-124 became effective is in the interest of
jus… |
| 24-6172 |
Tyrone T. Johnson v. Florida |
Florida |
2024-12-18 |
Denied |
IFP |
arbitrary-capricious capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment proportionality-review |
Has the Florida Supreme Court by abandoning comparative proportionality review in death penalty appeals - - while dismantling other safeguards, and in… |
| 23-7283 |
Hector Manuel Gomez Rodriguez v. United States |
Ninth Circuit |
2024-04-22 |
Denied |
Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP |
21-usc-841 constitutional-scrutiny criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment mandatory-minimum mandatory-minimum-sentences non-capital-sentences proportionality-review sentencing |
Did the Ninth Circuit contravene Harmelin's plurality and Ewing by essentially exempting all sentences that a district court imposes under 21 U.S.C. §… |
| 23-7024 |
Thomas Bevel v. Florida |
Florida |
2024-03-19 |
Denied |
IFP |
aggravating-factors arbitrary-sentencing capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment proportionality-review reasonable-doubt |
L. Whether Florida's capital sentencing scheme violates the Eighth Amendment because the controlling statute does not meaningfully limit the class of … |
| 23-5565 |
William E. Wells, III v. Florida |
Florida |
2023-09-13 |
Denied |
IFP |
aggravating-factors apprendi-v-new-jersey capital-sentencing death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment mental-illness proportionality-review |
L. Whether Florida's capital sentencing scheme violates the Eighth Amendment because the controlling statute does not meaningfully limit the class of … |
| 22-6725 |
Michael A. Gordon v. Florida |
Florida |
2023-02-08 |
Denied |
IFP |
capital-sentencing death-penalty eighth-amendment fourteenth-amendment proportionality-review pulley-v-harris |
Has the Florida Supreme Court by abandoning comparative proportionality review in death penalty appeals - - while dismantling other safeguards, and in… |
| 22-6376 |
Marcus Joseph v. South Carolina |
South Carolina |
2022-12-22 |
Denied |
Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP |
arbitrary-suspension civil-rights constitutional-interpretation criminal-procedure double-jeopardy due-process ex-post-facto habeas-corpus proportionality-review sentencing-guidelines state-court |
Question not identified. |
| 22-5405 |
Perry Sawano v. Colorado |
Colorado |
2022-08-19 |
Denied |
IFP |
8th-amendment aggregate-sentence constitutional-interpretation constitutional-law criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment proportionality-analysis proportionality-review sentencing sentencing-review |
1) Does the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits
the imposition of cruel and unusual punishment require that a sentencing
court… |
| 21-7977 |
Jason Albert Halda v. Wisconsin |
Wisconsin |
2022-05-26 |
Denied |
Response WaivedIFP |
constitutional-rights criminal-resentencing criminal-sentencing disproportionality eighth-amendment juvenile-offenders juvenile-sentencing miller-montgomery-rule miller-v-alabama montgomery-v-louisiana proportionality-review sentencing-guidelines |
1. Is Jason Halda entitled to a resentencing because the judge imposed sentences long before
the Court's rulings in Miller and Montgomery. Therefore,… |
| 21-7809 |
Urshawn Eric Miller v. Tennessee |
Tennessee |
2022-05-09 |
Denied |
IFP |
arbitrary-and-capricious arbitrary-capricious capital-punishment comparative-proportionality-review death-penalty due-process eighth-amendment proportionality-review sentencing-review |
Whether Tennessee's comparative proportionality review, the state's chosen safeguard against arbitrary and capricious imposition of the death penalty,… |
| 21-6257 |
Jevon Dion Jackson v. Wisconsin |
Wisconsin |
2021-11-12 |
Denied |
Response WaivedIFP |
as-applied-challenge eddings-v-oklahoma eighth-amendment juvenile-sentencing life-without-parole miller-rule miller-v-alabama proportionality proportionality-review youth-mitigation |
1. Whether a sentencing court adequately considers the mitigating aspects of youth where it considers at least some of those aspects to be aggravating… |
| 21-5407 |
Robin Rick Manning v. Michigan |
Michigan |
2021-08-17 |
Denied |
IFP |
civil-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment cruel-unusual-punishment due-process first-amendment habeas-corpus juvenile-justice miller-v-alabama proportionality-review roper-v-simmons sentencing sentencing-discretion |
1. THE 4 TO 3 MAJORITY DECISION OF HE MICHIGAN SUPREME COURT FLOUTED U.S. SUPREME COURT PRECEDENT i .e. THE EVOLVING STANDARDS OF DECENCY ON PROPORTIO… |
| 20-8341 |
Jonathan Huey Lawrence v. Florida |
Florida |
2021-06-17 |
Denied |
IFP |
capital-sentencing due-process eighth-amendment equal-protection fourteenth-amendment proffitt-v-florida proportionality-review pulley-v-harris |
In the decision below, the Florida Supreme Court held that maintaining conformity with this Court's Eighth Amendment jurisprudence required eliminatin… |
| 20-1155 |
Jonas David Nelson v. Minnesota |
Minnesota |
2021-02-23 |
Denied |
Amici (2)Response Waived |
cognitive-deficits cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment juvenile-offenders juvenile-sentencing life-sentence life-without-parole mental-illness proportionality proportionality-review |
1. Whether the Eighth Amendment right to narrow proportionality review of sentences of life without release entails a right to a hearing at which evid… |
| 20-831 |
Washington v. Endy Domingo-Cornelio |
Washington |
2020-12-21 |
Denied |
Amici (3) |
8th-amendment constitutional-law criminal-procedure eighth-amendment graham-v-florida individual-proportionality juvenile-offenders juvenile-sentencing life-without-parole miller-v-alabama proportionality-review sentencing-guidelines |
Whether Graham and Miller require an individual proportionality determination before imposing any sentence on a juvenile offender convicted in adult c… |
| 19-7626 |
Lonnie Rarden v. Ohio |
Ohio |
2020-02-12 |
Dismissed |
IFP |
cruel-and-unusual-punishment disproportionate-sentences due-process eighth-amendment non-violent-offense non-violent-offenses proportionality-review sentencing sentencing-disparity |
Is sentencing a defendant to a de facto life sentence for non-violent offenses fall within a violation of the eight amendment right of cruel and unusu… |
| 19-7284 |
Bobby Y. Wallace, Jr. v. Darrel Vannoy, Warden |
Fifth Circuit |
2020-01-14 |
Denied |
Amici (1)Response WaivedIFP |
aedpa aedpa-deference certificate-of-appealability criminal-sentencing cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment federalism gross-disproportionality habitual-offender insufficient-evidence jackson-standard jackson-v-virginia judicial-review no-evidence proportionality-review sentencing state-court-decisions |
The Supreme Court of Louisiana has a demonstrable, decades-long history of substituting in word and deed a "no evidence" standard for the "insufficien… |
| 19-6288 |
Ron Christopher Whitley v. United States |
Fourth Circuit |
2019-10-17 |
Denied |
Response WaivedIFP |
18-usc-3553(a) 18-usc-3553a appellate-review criminal-procedure criminal-sentencing drug-case drug-offense drug-offenses judicial-discretion proportionality-review sentencing-departure sentencing-factors sentencing-guidelines |
Whether the 156-month sentence is greater than necessary to comply with the purposes of sentencing under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) where the district court … |
| 19-5877 |
Damion D. Faulkner v. United States |
Sixth Circuit |
2019-09-09 |
Denied |
Response WaivedIFP |
criminal-sentencing cruel-and-unusual-punishment due-process eighth-amendment judicial-discretion proportionality proportionality-review sentencing sentencing-disparities sentencing-guidelines sentencing-reasonableness sex-offense sex-offenses substantive-due-process |
Is it substantively unreasonable to impose an effective sentence of life on a 30-year-old defendant who committed a "reprehensible" sex offense that c… |
| 18-9238 |
Reshaud Todd Brown v. Washington |
Washington |
2019-05-10 |
Denied |
IFP |
cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment habitual-offender habitual-offender-statute life-without-parole mandatory-sentencing proportionality-review sentencing sentencing-court youthful-adult youthful-offender |
Whether imposition of a mandatory sentence of life without parole under a habitual offender statute violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against … |
| 18-1267 |
Angela Rene Leeman v. Arizona |
Arizona |
2019-04-03 |
Denied |
Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2) |
civil-rights cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment graham-v-florida juvenile-sentencing miller-v-alabama non-homicide-offenses parole-eligibility parole-restriction proportionality proportionality-review |
1. Whether Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010), applies with the equal force to consecutive sentences for non-homicide offenses that work in the agg… |
| 18-6167 |
Ronald Wayne Clark, Jr. v. Florida |
Florida |
2018-10-02 |
Denied |
IFP |
capital-case capital-case,eighth-amendment,cruel-and-unusual-pu capital-punishment codefendant-culpability codefendants cruel-and-unusual-punishment cruel-unusual-punishment death-penalty death-sentence eighth-amendment proportionality-review reliability-of-death-sentence |
1. Whether an assessment of the relative culpability of codefendants in a capital case in Florida is required pursuant to the Eighth Amendment in orde… |
| 18-5330 |
Gregory Alan Kokal v. Julie L. Jones, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections |
Florida |
2018-07-24 |
Denied |
IFP |
capital-case capital-case,eighth-amendment,cruel-and-unusual-pu capital-punishment codefendant-culpability codefendants cruel-and-unusual-punishment culpability death-sentence eighth-amendment proportionality-review |
1. Whether an assessment of the relative culpability of codefendants in a capital case in Florida is required pursuant to the Eighth Amendment in orde… |