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8th Amendment Importance

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The Eighth Amendment It’s a late Autumn afternoon and a young fourteen year old boy is told that he has to pay $24,000 bail for stealing a bag of groceries. This is an unreasonable price to pay for the crime he committed. Luckily for us, the Eighth Amendment protects US citizens from unfair situations such as this one. The Eighth Amendment’s meaning and purpose has left an enduring impact on the citizens of the United States of America.
Meaning and Purpose First of all, the Eighth Amendment is an extremely significant part of the Constitution. The Eighth Amendment’s purpose is split into two parts. The first way that the Eighth Amendment is important to the Constitution is that it protects us from high bail prices. According to http://www.annenbergclassroom.org, …show more content…

Supreme Court reviewed the cases of Evan Miller and Kuntrell Jackson who were both convicted with committing capital murder at the age of fourteen. Firstly, all defendants are allowed to argue that their punishment violated the Eighth Amendment. According to www.verdict.justia.com, “ On a theory that Miller and Jackson were entitled to individualized sentencing, they were denied the opportunity to argue the relevance of these mitigating factors to their proper punishment in an attempt to persuade their judges that the sentence of LWOP was too harsh.” Specifically, this indicates that the accused people were not allowed to argue that their punishment had violated the Eighth Amendment. Secondly, age matters when deciding the consequence for the convicted criminals. For instance, the article claimed, “The first argument is that no fourteen-year-old may be sentenced to LWOP, given a fourteen-year-old’s biologically diminished capacity.” In particular, this means that minors cannot be sentenced to a life in prison. Another example is when the article proclaimed,” The second argument against the sentences in these cases is that even if the Supreme Court concludes that LWOP is sometimes a permissible sentence for a fourteen-year-old homicide offender, the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments demands that the sentencing judge at least have the opportunity to take the age of the offender into account in

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490 Words | 2 Pages

The eighth amendment is a protection for American citizens against “cruel and unusual punishment” and “excessive bail”. Roper v Simmons also violates the fourteenth amendment which addresses rights and citizenship, this became another hurdle in the case. The fourteenth amendment states “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” , in Roper v Simmons the Missouri Supreme Court was close to depriving Christopher Simmons of his life. Since Roper V Simmons states have reevaluated their minimum age for death penalty, 30 states do not even have a death penalty or capital punishment anymore. Cornell Law has also argued that because of Simmons’s age he was mentally incompetent, at the age at 17 Simmons is not eligible to “drink, serve on juries or even see certain movies…” , this was very intimidating and scary to Simmons’s prosecutor.

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Executive summary unit lll The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights that prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments. This amendment was added to the Constitution as a result of the abuses suffered by American colonists under British rule, where the government had the power to impose cruel and unusual punishments. The Eighth Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1791, along with nine other amendments known as the Bill of Rights. The amendment was necessary to protect the basic human rights of individuals in the criminal justice system and to prevent the government from imposing excessive and unjust punishments.

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•Explain what the amendment says (in plain English) – Search and seizure: the fourth amendment. This amendment prohibits officers and active members of the law to unlawfully search or enter a home or school without a search warrant; and even with a warrant you can only search where evidence might be found. If you are looking for a stolen car, you cannot check the kitchen cabinets the car won’t be there. If an area is improperly searched and something is found that cannot incriminate anyone, and is not allowed to be displayed in the court of law. •Explore what issues made it important for lawmakers in the Early Republic--important enough to add this amendment to the Constitution.

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In 2012, in Alabama v. Miller, 14-year-old Evan Miller beat up his neighbor and set fire to his trailer. In another case, Roper v. Simmons, Christopher Simmons tied a woman, threw her off a bridge, and watched her drown. So what happened? According to the article "Juveniles, No Parole," the Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that it was unconstitutional and a violation of the 8th Amendment to sentence a juvenile to prison, saying that in the second case, the Court banned the death penalty for people 18 and under. In that same story, Justice Elena said it "diminished culpability and heightened the capacity for change.

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For cases to take place in court, it should have at least a value of twenty dollars. The last amendment, the Eighth Amendment protects people from being punished. Since bill of attainder was known as the bill of pains and penalties, this protects individuals from unusual punishments. Amendment protects individuals themselves and their property.

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The Missouri Supreme court decided to relook Simmons’s case and appeal to the death penalty sentence. In Roper v. Simmons the basis of the U.S. Supreme court’s opinion was held that it is brutal and disproportion to impose capital punishment for crimes committed while under the age of 18 years old. The decision was on the basis that the Eight and Fourteen Amendments forbids the death penalty on a person who was 15 years of age or younger than 18 years old when they committed their crime. The Court considered that sentencing juveniles under the age of 18 years old to death penalty was ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment therefore the Eight and Fourteen Amendment should be abolished when it comes to putting juveniles under capital punishment. According to The Heritage Guide to The Constitution (2017) states, “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted” (Forte, D.F., 2017).

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The Eighth Amendment prohibits inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on citizens. The judicial branch must ensure that the rights and privileges granted to American people by the Constitution are provided equally regardless of their race, sex, or sexual identification (Edmondson, 2017). John Doe after serving two years of a five-year sentence for manufacturing methamphetamines, escapes from prison by hiding in the back of a milk truck. When the milk truck makes its first stop, inmate Doe climbs out of the milk truck and walks away without anyone’s assistance. Inmate Doe manages to find a new set of clothes, catches a ride with a stranger, and shows up at a friend’s home.

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It’s Not working out. By:Taija Jones. The 8th amendment says “Excessive bail shall not be required, Nor excessive fines imposed, Nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” . With that being said if the 8th amendment applies for cruel punishments of death penalties then why is it still happening.

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The first amendment establishes the people the right to freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and to petition. The second amendment establishes the peoples’ right to have weapons and the third amendment protects them from being forced to house the military. Due to the Fifth Amendment, Citizens’ protection from unreasonable search and seizure was put in place, as for the sixth amendment Americans has a right to an attorney and a fair trial in the court of law by an impartial jury of his or her peers. The Seventh amendment gives citizens the right to a trial by jury if there are claims exceeding twenty dollars made, and the eighth amendment makes it illegal for bail to exceed an price the contrast to the crime committed, and prevents cruel and unusual punishment by a court of law. The ninth amendment protects what may be later seen as a right, and finally, the tenth amendment gives states the right to establish laws that has yet been established by the federal

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Crimes are happening around us whether we pay attention to them or not. Those crimes as dangerous as murder are committed by all ages but should younger criminal in their juvenile age received the same punishment as older criminals. On June 25, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that juveniles committed murder could not be sentenced to life in prison because it violates the Eighth Amendment.(On-Demand Writing Assignment Juvenile Justice) Advocates on the concurring side believes that mandatory life in prison is wrong and should be abolish. However, the dissenting side believe that keeping the there should be a life in prison punishment for juvenile who commit heinous crime regardless of their age.

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6th Amendment I personally find that out of all the amendments the most important one is the 6th amendment. Reason being that it is crucial in aiding the judicial process from wrongly persecuting innocent people and it allows our democratic process to continue without preventing innocent people for taking the fall while punishing those who harm it. It keeps justice in check, keeping laws in line and rulings to be fair. The 6th amendment helps the defendants have an attorney when they are unable to afford one.

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For example, Nathaniel Brazill was 13 years old when he was guilty of shooting a middle school and charged with second degree murder. He says that he made a “stupid mistake” but was convicted of second degree murder not first. In the article, “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” it says that, “a child is not a man.” Meaning that a child shouldn 't be getting treated as an adult no they

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In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that it is immoral to give juveniles life sentences, even if they commit a crime as serious as murder, because it is a cruel and unusual punishment. This has been an issue in America as teenagers are often treated as adults in court due to a belief that their crimes warrant a harsh punishment. Many believe that these kids should not be given such major sentences because they are still immature and do not have the self control that adults do. I agree that juveniles do not deserve life sentences because they put less thought and planning into these crimes and they often are less malicious than adults. The article “Startling Finds on Teenage Brains” explains that the teenagers lose brain tissue that is responsible for self control and impulses (Thompson 7).

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Would you like your home to be searched in the middle of the night and have all of your stuff thrown on the ground just because a police officer may think that you have been doing something illegal? Luckily your Fourth amendment right protects you from this ever happening. The purpose of the Fourth Amendment is to protect U.S. citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. During the revolutionary war the British had imposed the writs of assistance which was a law that gave British government much more power over American Individuals. Americans were very unhappy with the writs of assistance because many would be thrown in jail without reason or a very weak one and their property would be destroyed by British officials

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In the late 1700’s, James Madison wrote the first Ten Amendments that are listed in the United States Constitution. The Bill of Rights were written to ensure American citizens that they have freedoms and rights that the government can 't infringe. Out of the Ten Amendments, I believe that the First and Eighth Amendment are the most significant. The First Amendment grants us freedom of speech, religion, press, petition, and for people to assemble peaceably.

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