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Wilkerson Viii Case Study

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Amendment VIII: Protection Against Unreasonable Bails, Fines and Punishments The eighth amendment protects people in the United States from bails and fines that are excessive and punishments that are cruel and unusual. This means that people who commit criminal acts are not allowed to be punished in an unusually cruel way. This amendment, as a part of the bill of rights was also a law in the British kingdom 102 years earlier than when it was added to the United States constitution and was also introduced in George Mason’s Declaration of Rights that he wrote for the commonwealth of Virginia in 1776, fifteen years before it was added to the constitution. It was undeniable that the eighth amendment needed to be added as a part of someone’s guaranteed …show more content…

Utah, Wilkerson was charged with first degree murder of William Baxter. According to the law and traditions surrounding the death penalty in the late 1800’s, people who are tried and convicted of felony acts as horrible as murder, will be sentenced to death or a life time of hard labor in prison. The killing of the convicted felon, if sentenced to the death penalty, would usually be public and be done by hanging, shooting, or beheading. However, the convicted is allowed to pick, in some cases, the means by which he or she dies in front of the public. This was not the case in Wilkerson v. Utah. Wilkerson pleaded not guilty and after the fair trial went underway, the jury did find him guilty of the pre-meditated murder of William Baxter. Mr. Justice Clifford, delivered the outcome of the trial and what was to happen to Wilkerson now that he was convicted. He told Wilkerson that he was to be shot dead by a firing squad in front of the public on the 14th of December. Wilkerson tried to repeal that decision by making the argument that hanging was the method of carrying out the death penalty during this time. In the territorial statute of Utah, someone who is found guilty of committing murder, “shall suffer death”. It never stated that death should be by hanging but that just seemed to be the common law method that many courts and judges used to punish the guilty murderers who were sentenced to the death penalty. Most were not fired on by a squad of people until they died. It was found that death by firing squad was not considered a cruel and unusual punishment in

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