Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber - Petitioner's Claim, Decision, Significance, A Cruel And Unusual Punishment?, What Is The State's Responsibility?

Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber - Further Readings

Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber - Petitioner's Claim

Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber - Decision

Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber - Significance

In this decision, the Court specified that electrocution in and of itself was not cruel or unusual punishment, a finding that has been used to deny other prisoners' claims that electrocution is a particularly inhumane form of execution. Also in this decision, the Court stressed that the botched electrocution attempt did not result from deliberate action by the state; this finding was used to suppo…

Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber - A Cruel And Unusual Punishment?

The first attempt to electrocute Willie Francis had failed. Francis filed suit, claiming both that his original trial had been unfair, and that a second attempt to execute him would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, which is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. Francis also argued that a second execution attempt would violate the double-jeopardy provision of the Fifth Amendment, which states…

Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber - What Is The State's Responsibility?

In upholding the right of Louisiana to electrocute Willie Francis a second time, the Court relied on the belief that the first failure had not resulted from any wrongdoing by the state. The Court compared the failure of the electric chair to another traumatic occurrence, such as a fire in the cell block. Even if Willie Francis's life had been threatened by such a fire, the Court argued, the state …

Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber - A More Humane Method?

Certainly, the history of electrocution is full of instances in which the apparatus did not work properly, and prolonged jolts of electricity were required to kill the prisoner. In some instances, these failures resulted from human error, as apparently happened in Willie Francis's case. In other cases, the difficulties simply resulted from the unreliability of electrocution itself. Human bodies di…

Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber - When The Electric Chair Malfunctions

Executions in the United States have tended to take place according to five basic methods, in chronological order: hanging, firing squads, electrocution, lethal gas, and lethal injection. The world's first electrocution, of William Kemmler at Sing Sing in 1890, was indeed a horrific affair, but the problem had to do with incompetence on the part of the executioner. The latter sent a 17-second jolt…