SALT LAKE CITY — The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Utah filed an amicus brief in the Utah Supreme Court today urging the court to uphold the Utah Constitution’s protection against “unnecessary rigor” in the carceral system and allow a group of people on the state death row to challenge their method of execution.
The Utah Constitution bars “cruel and unusual punishment” using language that mirrors the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition under the Eighth Amendment. However, article I, section 9 of the Utah Constitution goes further, dictating that people “imprisoned shall not be treated with unnecessary rigor.” The ACLU brief in Menzies v. Utah Department of Corrections argues that this more expansive protection means that people sentenced to death should not be forced to identify an alternative when challenging their method of execution, a requirement that the U.S. Supreme Court imposed in Glossip v. Gross for federal method-of-execution challenges.
“The Utah Constitution’s broad protections for incarcerated people are a feature, not a bug. History shows that the drafters of the Utah Constitution intended for these protections to be more expansive than the protections offered by the U.S. Constitution,” said Bridget Lavender, a legal fellow with the ACLU State Supreme Court Initiative. “Forcing people sentenced to death to overcome unnecessary barriers to challenge their execution method would violate the plain text and ignore the unique nature of the Utah Constitution.”
Utah state law provides that criminal defendants sentenced to death must be executed by lethal injection, with a firing squad available as an alternative in certain situations. In this case, plaintiffs challenge these two methods as a violation of the Utah Constitution's protections in Article I, section 9.
“The Utah Constitution provides incarcerated people with more expansive protections than the United States Constitution,” said Abby Cook, staff attorney for the ACLU of Utah. “Based on our state’s unique history and the text of our constitution, our brief underscores that cruel and unusual punishment and unnecessary rigor have no place in our criminal legal system.”
The brief is online here: https://www.acluutah.org/en/cases/amicus-brief-menzies-et-al-v-utah-dept...
