Kovarsky on Death Ineligibility and Habeas

Lee Kovarsky (New York University) has posted Death Ineligibility and Habeas Corpus at The Legal Workshop, a piece based on an article by the same title in the Cornell Law Review. From the introduction:

Death ineligibility claims . . . are not purely procedural challenges, but they are not challenges to a conviction’s validity.  The number of offenders in which a death ineligibility claim vests has increased dramatically and will only grow as the Court declares new categories of prisoners—probably those exhibiting some sort of diminished capacity—exempt from capital punishment.  In light of important distinctions between death ineligibility challenges and the claims upon which existing law is premised, the Supreme Court should reformulate habeas relief available to categories of offenders that may not be executed under the Eighth Amendment.