Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution

In 1993, Christopher Simmons and one of two friends participated in entering a home where they robbed a woman, tied her up and threw her off a nearby bridge. Respondent was aware of this activity as he planned the entire crime. Christopher, a high school teenager at that time bragged about the killing and later confessed which resulted in his arrest. Fagan and West mention in their article that deciding the death penalty to juveniles under the age of eighteen is arduous because of the lack of developmental and functional immaturity. We can compare that the lack of maturity in a minor can affect the way they make decisions, like Christopher. The main issue with this case is whether it was permissible under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution to execute a juvenile offender who is older than fifteen but younger than eighteen when committing a capital crime. In regards to Stanford VS. Kentucky (1989), which helped the case Roper VS. Simmons, the court examined that capital punishment sentences for minors ages sixteen and seventeen did not violate any rights of the 8th…

Before an individual is healed from a disease or sickness, doctors must first target the root of the cause. Once that is resolved, the doctors are able to cure the source from the sick patient, which would benefit the survivors of sickness to perform his or her daily lives as healthy and without worry anymore. Capital punishment works in the same way. Until the government allows for the death penalty, innocent lives (the sick) are not able to fully live freely because the criminals (the disease)…

The offender should be able to control their body and what happens to it, as long as they are of sound mind and without coercion. The correctional systems across the United States continually tinker with the minds of incarcerated people, using early release and parole granted after therapy as a “carrot on a stick” for sex offenders. I do not think any amount of behavioral modification therapy could be applied to a person to make them behave as a deviant, subsequently the opposite could not…

In the United States, the Bill of Rights is regarded as one of the most important documents of our nation’s history. An adaptation to the Constitution, the Bill protects its citizens from the government, giving us the freedom our country is notorious for. In our justice system, imprisonment is the deprivation of freedom, which is one of our essential rights. However, this practice is essential in keeping order in our society, and is necessary in protecting citizens from harm. While there are…

Do we really not care that people are getting tortured, sometimes not really knowing if they are responsible for an attack or etc. Some people might say that torture is the only way to get vital information, but there are many other ways to get information such as interrogating without physical abuse. According to the article “A Better Way Than Torture to Obtain Information: Acting Friendly”, “researchers found that when interrogation included a rapport-building approach, a transfer of…

The group decides to only let the hunters or militia have weapons, but if the whole group is capable of using a weapon then the island may be more stable with the balance of weapons. With the weapons being more spread out, the group could feel safer and more protected from the beast as they would be able to fight back. They would also be able to go hunting together and have the same power as one another. This is clearly stated in the Constitution as, “The right of the people to keep and bear…

The 8th amendment states that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted , which means that this amendment is protecting Americans against excessive punishments. So if these punishments are cruel and unusual which again are against the 8th amendment in the constitution and excessive force is the violation of a person's constitutional rights , which is illegal. Shouldn’t more cops who abuse their power as an officer and ensures…

large a fine is and how it relates to the corresponding crime. Some people can get prison time, fines, and even sentenced to death as a punishment for the crimes they have committed. This state sponsored death as punishment is a tactic used to frighten and intimidate people into not committing crimes, but this type of punishment goes directly against the 8th amendment right, directly prohibiting the cruel and unusual punishment, despite the generations separating their respective…

Federal and state governments have experienced a significant discrepancy in the practice of criminality reprimand. The definition of “cruel and unusual punishments” has been subjectively determined, leaving the decision of what constitutes as cruel or unusual to each state in America. This debacle results in thirty-two states allowing the death penalty, while eighteen states believe the death penalty contradicts the civil rights and liberties of its citizens. The Eighth Amendment, which states,…

The Tison Brothers One of the main questions in the court trial for Ricky and Raymond Tison seems to be “do they deserve the death sentence? Would sentencing them to death violate their 8th amendment rights? The 8th amendment says “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”, how can a person define what a “cruel and unusual Punishment” is? All these questions had arisen because of their involvement in the jail break of…