Jonah Patel
The Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution is often invoked in discussions of the death penalty and executions. The amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishments and has been used to challenge various methods of execution, including lethal injection, electrocution, and hanging. While the death penalty itself has not been deemed inherently cruel and unusual, the amendment has been interpreted to require an individualized sentencing process and prohibit disproportionate punishments. The Supreme Court has also ruled on specific cases, such as Roper v. Simmons, which held that juvenile offenders could not be executed. The Eighth Amendment continues to shape the legal landscape surrounding executions and the death penalty in the United States.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Name | Eighth Amendment |
| Description | The Eighth Amendment comprises one of the fundamental rights outlined in the Bill of Rights. It provides several important protections for people convicted of a crime. The most widely known part of the amendment is the protection against "cruel and unusual punishment". |
| Cases | Furman v. Georgia, Baze v. Rees, Glossip v. Gross, Atkins v. Virginia, Coker v. Georgia, Kennedy v. Louisiana, Roper v. Simmons, Crampton v. Ohio, McGautha v. California, Jackson v. Georgia, Branch v. Texas |
| Prohibitions | Excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishments |
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What You'll Learn
Lethal injection
The constitutionality of lethal injection was challenged in Baze v. Rees, where the Supreme Court held that lethal injection did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The Court applied an objectively intolerable test to determine if the method of execution violated the Eighth Amendment. The legality of lethal injection was further upheld in Glossip v. Gross, where the Court rejected a challenge to Oklahoma's three-drug lethal injection protocol.
Despite being upheld by the Supreme Court, lethal injection has been criticized as cruel and unusual punishment. Opponents critique the operation of lethal injections by untrained corrections officers and the lack of guarantee that the inmate will be unconscious. There have been instances where inmates have been injected with paralytics and a cardiac arrest-inducing agent while still conscious, which has been compared to torture.
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Hanging and electrocution
The electric chair was developed by Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New York dentist, over the course of a decade. It involves strapping the condemned to a custom wooden chair and electrocuting them via electrodes attached to the head and leg. The electric chair soon became a symbol of capital punishment in the US and was also used extensively in the Philippines.
However, there has been criticism of hanging as a form of capital punishment. In the 1880s, there were a series of botched hangings in the US, which led to mounting criticism of the practice. The length of the drop in a hanging is crucial to ensuring a quick death. If the rope is too long, the prisoner could be decapitated, and if it is too short, strangulation could take up to 45 minutes.
Despite this criticism, state courts and lower federal courts have refused to strike down hanging and electrocution as impermissible methods of execution. The US Supreme Court has never found a method of execution to be unconstitutional, although some methods have been declared unconstitutional by state courts. The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment, but this does not categorically prohibit the death penalty. The Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty does not violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However, the Eighth Amendment does shape certain procedural aspects of when a jury may use the death penalty and how it must be carried out.
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Juvenile offenders
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishments. In the context of executions, the Supreme Court has elaborated that the Eighth Amendment protects the dignity of all persons, "even those convicted of heinous crimes". Excessive and disproportionate punishments are prohibited as cruel and unusual punishment by the Court's precedent.
The Court has applied an evolving standards of decency test to decide which punishments are unconstitutionally excessive. In the case of Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988), the United States Supreme Court held that imposing the death penalty for murders committed by a person younger than 16 at the time of the offence constituted cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
However, in Stanford v. Kentucky (1989), the United States Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed at ages 16 or 17. The court found there was no national consensus that the execution of older adolescents was cruel and unusual under "evolving standards of decency".
In 2002, in Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court considered whether the special characteristics of individuals with mental retardation required that they be categorically exempted from the death penalty as a matter of federal constitutional law. The Court held that the execution of a mentally retarded person was a constitutionally forbidden cruel and unusual punishment, as they do not act with a level of moral culpability that characterises more serious adult criminal conduct.
In Roper v. Simmons (2005), the Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment forbids the execution of offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed. The Court considered both the national consensus that existed against the practice and testimony from medical and psychological organisations citing new evidence of delayed brain maturation that impacts culpability determinations for juveniles. The Court reversed Stanford, holding that the Eighth Amendment does not allow death sentences for juvenile offenders younger than 18.
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Discrimination
The Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution, ratified on December 15, 1791, states:
> Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The Eighth Amendment forbids the federal government from imposing unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants, either as the price for obtaining pretrial release or as punishment for crime after conviction. The Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause is the most important and controversial part of the amendment. While the death penalty is not prohibited by the Eighth Amendment, it does shape certain procedural aspects regarding when a jury may use the death penalty and how it must be carried out. The Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause incorporates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment and applies it to the states.
The question of whether the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment cannot be resolved by simply asking whether a person deserves to die for the crime they have committed. If the death penalty is applied in a racially discriminatory manner, where the race of the victim shapes who gets the death penalty and who does not; if it is imposed on the poor and innocent; or if people are executed using methods that are torturous and inhumane, then the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment.
In Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court determined that existing sentencing procedures in capital cases violated the Eighth Amendment because evidence showed that the death penalty was applied in discriminatory ways. Furman effectively suspended the death penalty nationwide, forcing states to confront systemic issues of equity in sentencing. In response, many states revised their death penalty statutes to address concerns of discrimination.
In Gregg v. Georgia, the Court reversed course, determining that the revised sentencing procedures in capital cases did not violate the Eighth Amendment, since they addressed the issue of discrimination. The Court also noted that the death penalty does not inherently violate the Constitution, emphasising its role in deterring crime and providing retribution.
In Kennedy v. Louisiana, the Court concluded that the Eighth Amendment precludes the death penalty for a person who rapes a child. The Court noted that since Gregg v. Georgia, it had spent more than 32 years articulating limiting factors to avoid the death penalty’s arbitrary imposition in the case of murder. Evolving standards of decency are difficult to reconcile with a regime that seeks to expand the death penalty to an area where standards to confine its use are indefinite and obscure.
The Supreme Court has established a standard for evaluating the constitutionality of an execution method. The method must not pose a substantial risk of wanton and unnecessary pain. The Eighth Amendment requires that the jury’s discretion be guided by clear and consistent standards, ensuring fairness and preventing arbitrary or discriminatory application of the death penalty.
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Cruel and unusual punishment
The Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution, adopted on December 15, 1791, protects citizens from cruel and unusual punishment. The amendment serves to limit the government's ability to impose unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants before and after a conviction. The phrases in this amendment originated in the English Bill of Rights of 1689, which prohibited "cruell and unusuall punishments".
The Eighth Amendment does not categorically prohibit the death penalty, but it does shape procedural aspects regarding when and how it may be carried out. The Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty does not violate the Eighth Amendment, but the amendment does impact how it is applied. For example, the Court has held that executing intellectually or developmentally disabled criminals violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In addition, the Court has invalidated existing death penalty laws that disproportionately affected minority and impoverished communities.
The Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause limits the criminal process in three ways. Firstly, it limits the kinds of punishment that can be imposed on those convicted of crimes. Secondly, it prohibits punishment grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime. Thirdly, it imposes substantive limits on what can be made criminal and punished as such. For example, the Supreme Court has ruled that a fine would not violate the Eighth Amendment unless it was "grossly disproportionate to the gravity of a defendant's offense".
The meaning of "cruel and unusual" punishment has been the subject of much debate. Some judges and scholars have argued that the meaning of the Constitution should change as societal values change, while others have advocated for a narrow interpretation of the original meaning. The Supreme Court has rejected the argument that executions must be carried out painlessly, but it has also stated that a punishment method must not cause unnecessary suffering.
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Frequently asked questions
The Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution forbids "cruel and unusual punishment". This includes excessive bail, excessive fines, and certain methods of execution.
The Eighth Amendment does not categorically prohibit the death penalty. However, it does shape procedural aspects regarding when a jury may use the death penalty and how it must be carried out. For example, the death penalty is unconstitutional for juvenile offenders.
Executions that violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment include those that are barbaric, those that cause unnecessary suffering, and those that are disproportionate to the crime. For example, in Coker v. Georgia, the Supreme Court held that the death penalty was disproportionate in cases of child rape.
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