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8th Amendment Research Paper

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The Eighth Amendment states “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (The Eighth Amendment 231).When the Eighth amendment was written, there was an obvious concern for the mistreatment of criminals by the judicial system. The problem that arose was not the inability of the Supreme Court to understand the meaning between the words, but the inability to agree with what constitutes “Cruel and Unusual”. What one Justice considered not enough, another might feel that the punishment was too severe. McWilliams writes, “Even Justice Black, advocate for the proposition “that there are ‘absolutes’ in our Bill of Rights, and that they were put there on purpose by men who knew what

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