Brief filed: 06/07/2019
Documents
Kahler v. Kansas
United States Supreme Court; Case No. 18-6135
Prior Decision
Decision below 307 Kan. 374 (Kan. Feb. 9, 2018)
Argument(s)
Principled rationales for punishment do not justify criminal responsibility for individuals who lack moral culpability. None of the punishment embraced by American criminal law justifies punishing people who lack moral capacity. The insanity defense has protected from criminal punishment individuals who lack moral culpability. Abolishing the insanity defense, as Kansas has done, allows people who lack moral culpability to be imprisoned and executed.
Author(s)
Jonathan L. Marcus, Brendan B. Gants, Daniel B. O’Connell, and Jeongu Gim, Skadden Arps, Washington, DC; Barbara E. Bergman, NACDL, Tucson, AZ.
