And on Thursday the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in 1986 that execution of a mentally incompetent convict is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual, unanimously rejected his request for a stay.

The Supreme Court agreed today to decide whether sentences of 25 years to life in prison imposed under California's three-strikes law are unconstitutionally cruel when the third strike is a minor property crime.

Following the execution of Robert Alton Harris, a federal court declared that "execution by lethal gas under the California protocol is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual."

The Georgia Supreme Court agreed today to decide whether execution in the electric chair is unconstitutionally cruel, temporarily sparing the life of a 61-year-old inmate four hours before he was scheduled to be electrocuted.

In October 1994, a United States federal judge ruled that the gas chamber was an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment in Fierro v. Gomez, 865 F.Supp.

Addressing the second and third points of the plaintiff's argument simultaneously, the Court determined that the sentence of 15 years in prison was unconstitutionally cruel and unusual.

A17 Electric Chair at Issue The Georgia Supreme Court, voting 4 to 3, agreed to decide whether execution in the electric chair is unconstitutionally cruel.

But it did not rule them to be unconstitutionally cruel or unusual, except in cases of mental illness.

Most unusual of all, he agreed to have his own death videotaped, in support of an appeal planned by another condemned prisoner that would challenge the state's method of execution as unconstitutionally cruel.

Following are excerpts from the Supreme Court decision yesterday that executing mentally retarded inmates is unconstitutionally cruel.