Cruel and unusual punishment

The U.S. Constitution’s clause regarding “cruel and unusual punishment” is the most essential and contentious part of the Eighth Amendment. What does it mean for a punishment of a crime to be “cruel and unusual”? How does one evaluate a punishment’s cruelty? The Eighth Amendment, ratified in 1791, includes only sixteen words: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (Eighth Amendment). That amendment, nevertheless has…

Within the United States of America, the death penalty is a continued controversy practice. The United States practices capital punishment on a state level; there are thirty-two states with the death penalty. Therefore, despite the ongoing battle to abolish the death penalty, majority of states comprehend the sentence as a necessary punishment to certain crimes committed within each state. In Texas a person can be sentenced to death row even if the criminal is not responsible for the actual…

death penalty in the eyes of the pubic. Would you agree that the punishment given was proportional and justified the crime offended? It certainly wouldn’t have back then, so why is it now? The 8th amendment have changed based on how our prosectives changed over time and so has our ways of interpreting the terms “ cruel and unusual”. What we would have considered as punishment was way different than what we thought was a punishment in the 1700. The way we used the term and the contexted we use it…

Capital punishment has always been a subject that people normally do not like to talk about because people, especially the government, knows that capital punishment is an unconstitutional cruel and unusual idea. Capital punishment should be used by states to execute a prisoner, given that the evidence that is against them is substantial enough and beyond a doubt calls for a death sentence. Even though capital punishment is rare and slowly decreasing (Source A), the fact that it continues to…

In all seriousness, the death penalty can be considered cruel and unusual punishment. “The death penalty is usually thought of as a humane way to put to death the most evil criminals and to deter others from committing heinous crimes” (“Cruel & Unusual: The Death Penalty v. The Eighth Amendment”). Many people sent into court are convicted of the death penalty as their sentence, but never are put to death. They live in jail waiting for their death to come, but never actually die from the death…

prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The 4th amendment prohibits unreasonable search and seizure of property. The 13th amendment abolished slavery. These three amendments have helped to shape America and the way that government runs the country. The 8th amendment prohibits the federal government from imposing…

AMENDMENT 8 You’ve been on the death row for the past 20 years, after your conviction for a triple murder, yet the brief states that an injection would impose “cruel or unusual punishment” on you. Your attorneys have talked to health professionals and they have stated that the lethal injection would cause you major painful seizures. Well all this is all happening to Ernest Lee Johnson; ABC news stated that in 2008 doctors removed part of a brain tumor found in his head. They also stated that…

When someone commits a crime there are many punishments they can receive. House arrest, fines, jail time are some of the most common. But one type of punishment is the most polarizing of them all, the death penalty. Whether the death penalty should be used is often a debated topic between the science of killing someone for their crimes, or the more religious beliefs that it is cruel and unusual to use the death penalty. When considering people who were sentenced to the death penalty like Gregg,…

Totality-of-conditions Test and the Balance Test, proves to be the most useful in determining when prison conditions constitute cruel and unusual punishments. However, totality of conditions test, is primarily used to determine whether the overall conditions within a prison constitute cruel and unusual punishment. [1] The Pugh v. Locke, case that encompassed the “Prison Conditions” of Alabama Prisons and established the totality of conditions test. The complaint was originally filed by an inmate…

Amendment is the cruel and unusual clause. Not only because it is focused on the death penalty. When think about the cruel and unusual punishment clause you can think about how it is measured and what are the types of punishments that are considered to be unusual. Throughout the year the procedures of the capital punishment has changed depending on what was considered to be a violation to the Eight Amendment. This not only affect the people who are being sentenced for capital punishment, but the…