Richard Gerald Jordan, Petitioner v. Mississippi

Richard Jordan asked the Supreme Court to decide whether keeping him imprisoned for more than 40 years while awaiting execution violated the Eighth Amendment, especially after repeated sentencing errors. On June 28, 2018, the Court vacated in this case, but the prompt does not say that the justices answered the broader constitutional question on the merits.

The Court decided the case without a scheduled argument, and the prompt does not provide a vote count or opinion lineup.

The case matters for death penalty cases with very long delays, especially when courts have already found multiple problems with earlier sentencing hearings. For example, a prisoner who has spent decades on death row after repeated unconstitutional proceedings could argue that the punishment no longer serves a valid purpose.

This Supreme Court docket is finished. After the vacatur, any further action would occur in the lower court or related proceedings, but the prompt does not give more detail.

Jordan argued that spending more than four decades awaiting execution violated the Eighth Amendment. He said the long delay was worsened by repeated constitutional errors in sentencing.

People on death row for many years after repeated sentencing mistakes could be affected most directly. States and lower courts also may face renewed questions about whether such delays still serve punishment goals.

The Supreme Court's work on this docket ended on June 28, 2018. Because the case was vacated, any next step would depend on lower-court proceedings not described in the prompt.