The Eighth Amendment protects the right of prisoners before they are tried and after they are convicted. It also bars excessive fines and “cruel and unusual” punishments. In 1641, the Massachusetts Body of Liberties standards allowed the death penalty for blasphemy and had physical punishments such as cutting off ears and branding with a hot iron. But now the death penalty is no longer allowed in some states because its defined as “evolving standards of decency” and most are extremely cruel and the cost is expensive. The Eighth Amendment prohibits mentally ill persons to “cruel and unusual” punishments. The Supreme Court case in 2005 of Roper v. Simmons is about Christopher Simmons and he was sentenced to death in 1993, when he was only 17. …show more content…
The cost to execute someone is 5x times more than keeping them in jail. Cases without the death penalty cost roughly about $740,000 depending on the situation, while cases with the death penalty cost roughly $1.26 million. Maintaining each death row prisoners cost taxpayers $90,000 more per year than a prisoner in general population. Another controversy is executing innocent people. It’s a big problem that some cases have to deal with killing an innocent person who didn’t commit the crime. An investigation by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education fund has uncovered evidence that Larry Griffin may have been innocent of the crime by the state of Missouri on June 21,1995. Griffin maintained his innocent until his death, investigators say his case is the strongest demonstration yet on executing a innocent man. There's been many controversies because there are two points of view on the death penalty, you have people who support it and then people who don’t support. The Aurora Theater shooter conviction has been a huge controversy because he killed 12 and wounded 70 and he got sentenced to one life term for each person he killed plus 3,318 years for the attempted murders. Jury couldn't decide if he should get the death …show more content…
States are getting out of hand. The state of Oklahoma will start using nitrogen gas to execute death row, officials said, an unprecedented response to the inability of states nation wide to obtain lethal injection drugs. Oklahoma’s move is the latest in a series of dramatic efforts. Some officials have made to carrying out death sentences. Oklahoma isn't the only state who has decided to practice death penalty. Electrocution is in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Utah does firing squad. In 2009, New Mexico voted to abolish the death penalty. Colorado abolished the death penalty in 1897 but reinstated it in 1901. In 2009, the Colorado House of Representatives passed the death penalty abolished bill. A pro of having the power to use the death penalty is that it kills people for there bad crimes. A con of having the power to apply the death penalty is the person who made the crime just dies and doesn't have to think about what they did and how the families of the victims feel. States are losing the lethal injection drug because there's little supply of it. Personally I think individual states should not have the power because the criminal should think about what they have done. Also, states have too much power in the first place either all states should have them or don't have them at
The 8th amendment prohibits any type of punishment that is cruel or unusual in our correctional system. For example, in prison, a guard cannot cut an inmate's ear off or subjugate him/her to a whipping for finding contraband in their bunk.
The U.S. Constitutional Rights are laws that guarantee the basic rights for the citizens.There are twenty-seven Constitutional Amendments in total, but 10 of them represent The Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights ensures the basic individual protections such as freedom of speech and religion. The Bill of Rights became part of the Constitution in December 15, 1791 by George Mason.
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Most people are aware and know about the First Amendment which is the right of free speech and recently the Second Amendment has become a big deal too, dealing with the right to bear arms. However not everyone knows about the Ninth and Tenth Amendment, the Ninth Amendment states that ¨The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.¨ The Tenth Amendment states that ¨The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.¨ The Ninth Amendment says that there are other rights that may exist aside from the ones explicitly mentioned. (NInth Amendment.
The famous Founding Fathers of the United States created critical documents to protect the citizens of the country they were establishing. These documents included the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. The latter, the Bill of Rights, ensures certain rights to all citizens, and the Eighth Amendment in particular, protects citizens against cruel or unusual punishments for breaking the law. When analyzing the protection under the Eighth Amendment one must also look at all the aspects of the law including: the history of the law, the modern uses and abuses of the law, and the law’s current effectiveness.
The hysteria over the Las Vegas shooting has prompted people to seek for stricter gun control. Michael Moore has taken the initiative and proposed the twenty-eighth amendment, with the intention to make it more difficult for people to access and misuse guns. This amendment will pose a hindrance on the state of Arizona, if it passes, because people will no longer be able to use guns in times of needs, they run the risk of not being well equipped if the government decides to take over and they will be to stripped of their right to bear arms.
The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution limits the punishments that may be imposed by the government on American citizens. These limits are compulsory among the states by way of the Fourteenth Amendment. The English Bill of Rights of 1689 expressed concern with arbitrary and disproportionate sanctions, giving way to the Founders inclusion of the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. To explore the Eighth Amendment it is important to consider constitutionally accepted punishments, the ever-evolving practice of capital punishment, and eighth amendment protection inside prison walls.
Since 2012, the use of lethal injection has been legal in 31 states, to contaminate a convict. 1,423 people innocent and guilty have died from the death penalty since 1972. I strongly believe that the death penalty is unconstitutional being that it violates the Eighth Amendment, irreversible, and executes a large amount of hypocrisy.
That question is a debate that has been occuring for years. The supreme court has previously ruled that the dealth penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment there for it is not violating the eighth amendment in any way. Despite how the supreme court has ruled the death penalty, there is still many arguments till this day on whether or not it should fall under cruel and unusual punishment. In 1972, the case Furman V. Georgia was brought in front of the supreme court to rule whether or not they believed the dealth penality was cruel and unusual. This case almost ruled out the death penalty, but that didn't last very long. In 1976, the case Gregg V. Georgia came in front of the Supreme Court and the earlier decision was changed because a majority vote believed that the dealth penalty was not cruel and unusual. Eventually four principals were established to decided whether or not punishment was cruel and unusual. The four questions were, is it degrading to human dignity? Is it arbitary? Is it rejected throughout society? Is it unnecessary? Which many states ended up believing that the death penalty were along the lines of those four principals. Clayton Lockett might be a tragic example of the death penalty going bad. He was getting injected, but the injection didn't kill him up until an hour after it was injected. He had to sit there and suffer and many would of
The Eight Amendment entails that every penalty inflicted by the government be in proportion with the crime entrusted by the defendant. Penalties that are unreasonably inconsiderate will be turned over on petition. For instance, punishments that have been turned over for being irrational are two Georgia (Coker v. Georgia, and Eberheart v. Georgia) decrees that ordered the death penalty for rape and kidnapping. According to the Supreme Court, the Eighth Amendment prohibits some penalties completely, and prohibits some other penalties that are extreme when evaluated to the offense, or to the capability of the performer. The U.S. Supreme Court interpretation of the
The 8th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the setting of excessive bail or the imposition of excessive fines. However, it has also been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States (according to the Eighth Amendment)to inflict physical damage on students in a school environment for the purpose of discipline in most circumstances. The 8th Amendment stipulates that bail shall not be excessive. This is unclear as to whether or not there is a constitutional right to bail, or only prohibits excessive bail, if it is to be granted.
The state murdering people because of their crimes simply does not equate to justice. It is real easy to hear about how the government is doing this wrong or that,but the death penalty is abounded with so many injustices and faults that it's an embarrassment to our entire due process of law. Supporters of capital punishment subscribe to religious and ethical points of view rather than facts, and when they do offer facts it's always the same argument: "It's a deterrent." The death penalty is extremely flawed, most notably it comes with a very high price tag to an already under-funded correctional institution in America; no stable argument has been installed to warrant it as a deterrent; and the moral decay it establishes creates among other things a feeling of revenge and spite within society. The flaws of capital punishment become too many shortly after they total one. This is because of the focus of the death penalty that being human life. Innocent people being sent to death or being released within weeks of execution are becoming frequent stories on the nightly news. The legal system is disturbingly unable to correctly administer the death penalty. Every day individuals who can't afford a lawyer have to have one appointed to them under the constitution. These
An Impassioned Debate: An overview of the death penalty in America depicts the facts about the eighth amendment. The eighth amendment is the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments (Masci 1). There are two significant cases that have inflamed the debate over the capital punishment, The Baze v. Reese case, and the Kennedy v. Louisiana case. The first case reveals the strong debate that the execution by lethal injection is inhuman and in violation of the eight amendment. The second case inflamed the
In the United States Constitution, the 8th Amendment prohibits the use and practices of cruel and unusual punishment. What exactly is considered to be cruel and unusual punishment? This question is a hot topic among America's many different current controversies. Many people are saying that the use of capital punishment (to be sentenced to death as a penalty in the eyes of the law [a capital crime]. An execution [capital punishment]) is a direct violation of the 8th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (Capital Punishment). They say there should be another way to deal with these criminals other than having them executed. The purpose of this paper is to give a brief history of the death penalty
The issue of the death penalty has been of great concern and debate for a number of years now. Prior to 1976, the death penalty was banned in the United States. In 1976, though, the ban was lifted, and many states adopted the death penalty in their constitutions. Currently, there are 38 states that use the death penalty, and only 12 states that do not. The states that have the death penalty use a number of ways to go about executing the defendant. Thirty-two states use lethal injection, 10 use electrocution, 6 use the gas chamber, 2 use hanging, and 2 states use a firing squad (Death Penalty Information Center, 1997). The 12 states that do not have the death penalty are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,