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Pros And Cons Of The 8th Amendment

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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

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