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Write An Essay On The 8th Amendment

471 Words2 Pages

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution forbids any type of cruel and unusual punishments. Nearly every state also has its own ban on these penalties. The concept of cruel and unusual punishment was engrained into the English law. The biggest issue that focuses on the 8th Amendment would be capital punishment – issuing death sentences. Typically, states can pursue their own guidelines with capital punishment. It wasn’t until 1972 that the dealt penalty was ever challenged by the Supreme Court. Even then, states were only warned that capital punishment should be done in a consistent and fair way (Bonta & Gendreau, 1990). The rights of anyone accused of committing a crime is protected by the Constitution. As an example, Article I of the Constitution establishes the right of an injection of habeas corpus – an order that demands a judge to assess if there would be sufficient cause to keep an individual in jail. However, general protection can be found in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments. Basically, the cruel and unusual punishment section assesses punishment against the general public’s exclusion of inhuman treatment. It stops the government from inflicting penalties that are barbaric or way to severe for a crime, including prison conditions …show more content…

The Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment if it was being applied to mentally retarded or insane defendants. There’s a lot of debate whether the methods of the death penalty violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment, such as lethal injection. Unfortunately, there’s not a set standard when deciding what may constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The idea is adjustable and changes when society changes, typically broadening so much that more types of punishment fall under the category of cruel and unusual punishment (Meltsner,

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8th Amendment Pros And Cons

1107 Words | 5 Pages

Although, the term “cruel and unusual punishment” is constantly changing as society develops. For example when the amendment was first made cruel and unusual punishment at the time was being burned at the stake or being tortured. Today cruel and unusual punishment can include the death penalty and it was not until a little after the 1970s when the death penalty was considered a part of cruel and unusual punishment. The main use of the eighth amendment in court is for cruel and unusual punishment. Some cases that use the eighth amendment are the Roper v. Simmons, Hudson v. McMillian, and the Woodson v. North

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Gregg Vs Georgia Case Study

1054 Words | 5 Pages

Sentencing a criminal who is mentally retarded is directly going against the Eighth Amendment, which attempts to ‘evolve standards of decency’ in our nation. The Supreme Court of the United States prohibited the execution with mental deficiencies in the Atkins v. Virginia case in 2002. The Constitution enforces a substantive limitation on the States’ abilities to take the life of a criminal who is mentally retarded. (ATKINS V. VIRGINIA, 2002) Ethnic discrimination, financial influences, and factors such as mental retardation are three huge reasons why it is morally necessary to refuse to use the death penalty as a suitable mean of punishment, for this method would time after time fall under the realm of unequal or unjust punishment.

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Argumentative Essay On The 8th Amendment

590 Words | 3 Pages

(Hurst v. Florida) (Furman v. Georgia (intro)) From this case, it showed how “it has been assumed in our decisions that punishment by death is not cruel, unless the manner of execution can be said to be inhuman and barbarous” (“FindLaw's United States Supreme Court Case

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The Pros And Cons Of The Eighth Amendment

1892 Words | 8 Pages

The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of the United is one of the shortest amendments, but its understanding has caused many debates. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted (). The 1960s brought challenges to the fundamental legality of the death penalty. Before then, the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments were interpreted as permitting the death penalty (Death Penalty Information Center, 2015). The eighth Amendment was born from the 1689 English Bill of Rights.

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Research Paper On The 8th Amendment

546 Words | 3 Pages

The 8th Amendment is stated as simply as this: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fins imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” We do know some things about the history of the phrase “cruel and unusual punishments”. In 169, a full century before the ratification of the United States Constitution, England adopted the Bill of Rights that prohibited “cruell and unusuall punishments”. In 1776, George Mason included a prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments in the Declaration of Rights he drafted for he Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1791, the same prohibition became the central component of the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

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Death Penalty Violate The 8th Amendment Essay

700 Words | 3 Pages

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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Does The Death Penalty Violate The 8th Amendment

405 Words | 2 Pages

Does the death penalty violate the 8th Amendment? According to the National Constitution Center, the 8th Amendment states “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (“Amendment VIII”). There is no objective answer to this, because the courts never clearly stated that the death penalty is cruel and unusual. I do not agree with any part of the death penalty simply because I believe it is cruel in the sense that it strips man of his “right to life” as declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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1711 Words | 7 Pages

But are we in the future to be prevented from inflicting these punishments because they are cruel? If a more lenient mode of correcting vice and deterring others from the commission of it would be invented, it would be very prudent in the Legislature to adopt it; but until we have some security that this will be done, we ought not to be restrained from making necessary laws by any declaration of this kind’ “ (Bomboy). In other words, Livermore was arguing that all citizens who commit horrible crime do deserve severe punishments for the crimes that they commit, and until the government figures out a way to place restrictions and guidelines on the penalties that we believe are morally proper to give, then they cannot hold back from reprimanding those citizens. Consequently, The Founding Fathers created the Eighth Amendment to be intended for further generations to interpret the meaning of “cruel” and “unusual” over time (Donnell). The amendment was then ratified in 1791 nevertheless, the Eighth Amendment and the death penalty is still highly debated today because the differences in interpretations

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225 Words | 1 Pages

The Eighth Amendment was created to prohibit cruel punishments that the colonists would receive from the British. The British brought colonists over to an unfair trial and then received punishment that sometimes would be death. The writers of the wanted to make sure that the colonists received the fair trial and fair punishment they deserve. The Eight Amendment was ratified in December 5, 1791 as a part of the Bill of Rights. The Eighth Amendment has not been changed since the ratification in 1791.

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Capital Punishment Dbq

1068 Words | 5 Pages

The Eighth Amendment states that “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and excessive punishments inflicted”, which overall serves to protect the rights of criminals (source #5). The idea behind the phrase “Cruel and unusual” allows the interpretation of the Eighth Amendment to be significantly more flexible compared to other Amendments to meet the requirements of changing times. Therefore, as time progresses, society reforms its standard of decency, which generally leads to disparities between the views and treatments of offenders from different time periods (Source #4). This principle is prominent when comparing Penry v Lynaugh and Atkins v Virginia. Although both cases deal with mentally disabled offenders who were both charged with murder, the fact that the number of states that banned the execution of disabled offenders had increased from 2 to 18 between the 13 years between the time of these cases, shows the evolution in public opinion, or more specifically, the shift from disregarding a mental state of an offender, to sympathising with how they are not able to feel or understand certain ideas and feelings (Source #3).

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Essay On The 8th Amendment

126 Words | 1 Pages

There was a recent storm in Hollywood, Florida that left many homes without power. This storm also affected prisoners that were still kept in prisons that lacked of power, supplies, and plumbing during the emergency. This situation relates to The Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment protects people from “cruel or unusual punishment”. Some might view that keeping them in prisons is wrong and against their will.

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420 Words | 2 Pages

The Rules of rights from the 8th Amendment ‘’Unless this right to bail before trial is preserved the presumption of innocence secured only after centuries of struggle, would lose its meaning. The U.S supreme court has ruled that this is a Amendment cruel and unusual punishment cause also applies to the states. The court concluded that the death penalty as a punishment for murder does not itself

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2466 Words | 10 Pages

Brandon Bjoin CJST 352 Research Paper Capital Punishment Capital punishment is a growing concern within the United States. Just as many people are for using the death penalty as there are people who are against it. The people who are opposed, state that it violates the inmate’s Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment. The Eighth Amendment is stated as follows, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” So does the death penalty violate this right?

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844 Words | 4 Pages

The cruel and unusual punishment clause in the eighth amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from imposing certain punishments, regardless of the crime committed. Although, the Amendment does not specifically define punishments to be considered cruel and unusual, case laws throughout U.S. history has deemed such punishments as castration, burning alive, drawing and quartering, public dissection, and any punishment designed to cause a lingering death, to be beyond the concept of public decency, and therefore cruel and unusual.

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Essay On Constitutionality Of Death Penalty

1145 Words | 5 Pages

Amendment VIII of the Constitution states that “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”. The death penalty to some may be deemed “cruel and unusual punishment” in the modern age, but it is not because it has been around in law and is still law in many countries including our own so it cannot by definition be unusual (US Const. Amend. VIII). It also cannot be cruel because it is done through a painless injection as shown in the findings of the court case of Glossip v. Gross.

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