Essay On 8th Amendment

Words: 1772
Pages: 8

As time passes, the death penalty is no longer the elephant in the room. The Supreme Court has increasingly restricted the use of capital punishment. Based on the eighth amendment, people are discussing whether or not the death penalty be abolished. Some people think the death penalty should be abolished because the death penalty takes away other people’s rights. However, others think that the death penalty should not be abolished because it is the best way to punish killers and not let them do bad things again.

Why do people have such a different idea about a same amendment? For me, I think the reason is that there is some unclear information inside this amendment. “The Eighth Amendment was ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. It prohibits the government from inflicting "cruel and unusual punishments" and from imposing excessive fines on the convicted or high bail on the accused. Generally, the courts have granted legislatures flexibility in deciding whether fines or bail are excessive. Most contemporary controversy about the Eighth Amendment has centered on the provision prohibiting "cruel and unusual punishments." Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”(Eighth). In view of the eighth amendment, the constitution is not still a valuable and viable
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I can’t say the abolished side is totally wrong, but I don’t think it fits this modern society anymore.

“The Court held that there was insufficient evidence that the use of midazolam as the initial drug in the execution protocol entailed a substantial risk of severe pain, compared to known and available alternatives, in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Because capital punishment has been held to be constitutional and some risk of pain is inherent in execution, the Eighth Amendment does not require that a constitutional method of execution be free of any risk of