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Secured a decision in Brown v. Plata from the Supreme Court ruling that California violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Penry's case went twice to the United States Supreme Court: Penry v. Lynaugh found that executing the mentally retarded is not cruel and unusual punishment; Penry v. Johnson found that the jury's instructions regarding mitigating factors were incomplete and that Penry should be re-sentenced.
In September 2007, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear their first case of whether or not the use of lethal injection does in fact violate the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
He gained national attention in 2005 when he delayed the execution of Michael Bruce Ross in order to determine if he was competent to waive challenges to his death sentence and potentially prevent a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
In 2004 Bowling sued the Kentucky State Department of Corrections along with fellow inmate Ralph Baze on the grounds that execution by lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.