Execution Methods
Menzies v. Utah Department of Corrections
Article I, section 9 of the Utah Constitution protects incarcerated individuals from both cruel and unusual punishment and unnecessarily rigorous treatment. This case asks whether death-sentenced plaintiffs seeking to challenge certain execution methods as cruel and unusual or unnecessarily rigorous under this provision must identify, in their pleadings, an alternative method of execution. The U.S. Supreme Court has required this alternative for Eighth Amendment challenges, but the ºìÐÓÊÓÆµâ€™s State Supreme Court Initiative, alongside the Capital Punishment Project and ºìÐÓÊÓÆµ of Utah, filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs, arguing that federal caselaw does not limit the greater protections provided by section 9 of the Utah Constitution. Forcing prisoners challenging a method of execution to identify an acceptable alternative method is cruel, coercive, and not necessary to the administration of Utah’s death penalty laws.
Status: Ongoing
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2 Execution Methods Cases

Missouri
May 2014
Execution Methods
Capital Punishment
ºìÐÓÊÓÆµ Petition to IACHR on Missouri and Oklahoma Executions that Will Violate International Law
The ºìÐÓÊÓÆµ filed a petition with the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights showing that the upcoming executions by lethal injection in Missouri and Oklahoma will violate international law against cruel and unusual punishment, should they go forward. The ºìÐÓÊÓÆµ asks that the executions be stopped until the IACHR can conduct independent investigations of the two cases.
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Missouri
May 2014

Execution Methods
Capital Punishment
ºìÐÓÊÓÆµ Petition to IACHR on Missouri and Oklahoma Executions that Will Violate International Law
The ºìÐÓÊÓÆµ filed a petition with the Organization of American States' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights showing that the upcoming executions by lethal injection in Missouri and Oklahoma will violate international law against cruel and unusual punishment, should they go forward. The ºìÐÓÊÓÆµ asks that the executions be stopped until the IACHR can conduct independent investigations of the two cases.