Many debates were held during the course of the Constitutional Convention with the “necessity for a bill of rights” being most frequently the center of controversy. “Opponents repeatedly charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to tyranny by the central government” (Charters) as British violation of civil rights, both prior to and after the Revolution, was still fresh in their minds. Therefore, then, “they demanded a bill of rights that would spell out the immunities of individual citizens” (Charters).
On the 25th of September in 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed twelve new Constitutional amendments unto the states which met most arguments made frequently against it. Of the twelve proposed amendments, Articles One and Two, “which concerned the number of constituents for each Representative and the compensation of Congressmen, were not ratified” (Charters) leaving Articles Three through Twelve to constitute the first ten amendments of the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights.
Focus should be drawn, however, towards the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, more specifically, its clause pertaining to “cruel and unusual punishment” and its application to capital punishment. Of the Ten Constitutional Amendments comprising the Bill of Rights, the Eighth most needs revision for a grey area lies within its wording regarding the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments. The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution is most clearly affected by societal evolution, and, therefore, it is paramount to revise this amendment in order to meet society’s ever-changing standards of morality so that “cruel and unusual” shall be better defined criteria when considering acceptable means of punish...
... middle of paper ...
...human life; as well as to answer the fundamental question of what is to constitute a punishment that is not “cruel” or “unusual” if the systematic administration of punishments, in a manner deemed “cruel and unusual,” is to be considered unconstitutional and in bad moral standing
Works Cited
“Execution Methods”. American Civil Liberties Union. N.P., N.D. Web. 6 Oct. 2013
“Facts about the Death Penalty”. Death Penalty Information Center. 2 Oct 2013. Web. 6 Oct 2013.
“Gallup Death Penalty Poll”. Gallup Polls. N.P., N.D. Web. 6 Oct 2013.
“The Charters of Freedom: A New World Is At Hand”. Archives.gov. National Archives, N.P., N.D. Web. 6 Oct. 2013.
Pappas, Stephanie. “Execution Science: What’s the Best Way to Kill a Person?”. Live Science. 1 Oct 2010. Web. 6 Oct 2013.
Warren, Vincent. “Torture on Death Row”. Huffington Post News. 9 Oct 2013. Web. 9 Oct 2013.
Amar, Akhil Reed. The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Print.
What do you consider to be cruel and unusual punishment? Most people when asked this question think of medieval torture devices, burning people alive, and hard slave labor. However, cruel and unusual punishment, which is a protected against right by the eighth amendment, stretches far beyond these cliches and is still occurring in modern society. The case Miller v. Alabama and a parallel case, Jackson v. Hobbs deals with such punishments and brings up the questions of what, in current times, is to be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Miller v. Alabama addresses with the debate that arose surrounding the mandatory sentence of life without parole for a juvenile when two boys, fourteen-year-old Evan Miller and sixteen-year-old Colby Smith,
In his essay, Continuing the Search for Kinder Executions, published in The New York Times2003, Mark Essig gradually reveals his opinions on the brutality of capital punishment. Even though prisoners may have committed acts that can be classified as wrong with the law, Essig believes that they should not endure any sufferance during capital punishment because it is inhumane. This action does not mean they will be able to get away with the crimes; they should just not be able to be brutally punished. While the author acknowledges logical arguments that favor capital punishment, he counters with carefully worded emotionally laded examples that oppose the practice of executing felons because he is against cruel punishments.
Each year there are about 250 people added to death row and 35 executed. From 1976 to 1995 there were a total of 314 people put to death in the US 179 of them were put to death using lethal injection, 123 were put to death using electrocution, 9 were put to death in a gas chamber, 2 were hanged, and 1 was put to death using the firing squad. The death penalty is the harshest form of punishment enforced in the United Sates today. Once a jury has convicted a criminal, they go to the second part of the trial, the punishment phase. If the jury recommends the death penalty and the judge agrees then the criminal will face some form of execution, lethal injection is the most common form used today. There was a period from 1972 to 1976 that capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Their reason for this decision was that the death penalty was "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment. The decision was reversed when new methods of execution were introduced. Capital punishment is a difficult issue and there are as many different opinions as there are people. In our project, both sides have been presented and argued fully.
This the main concern for most people because in England they were controlled by the central government an people did not have many rights to protect them. In the end the Bill of rights were inspired by Jefferson and drafted by James Madison in
Marquis, Joshua. “Should the Death Penalty Be Abolished?” The New York Times Upfront, 07, Oct. 2013 :22
"Capital punishment is a term which indicates muddled thinking." George Bernard Shaw The "muddled thinking" that Shaw speaks of is the thinking that perpetuates the controversy over capital punishment in the United States today. The impractical concurrence of a theoretical, moral argument and definite, legal application has left all sides in this controversy dissatisfied with the ultimate handling of the issue. There are legitimate ethical and empirical considerations that stand on both the side that favors and on the side that opposes the death penalty. The general incompatibility of these considerations renders them irreconcilable. It is within this condition of irreconcilability that the government must initiate and implement its policies regarding capital punishment. This fixed condition has led to the necessity for and creation of comprises between both sites of this debate, attempting to synthesize the considerations of the two. The contentious issue of the capital punishment was rekindled in the 1970s when, in 1976, the Supreme reinstated the practice after a four-year hiatus. The arguments that comprise much of the legal debate on the issue stem from the eighth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution. The eighth reads, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." 1
Throughout America’s history, capital punishment, or the death penalty, has been used to punish criminals for murder and other capital crimes. In the early 20th century, numerous people would gather for public executions. The media described these events gruesome and barbaric (“Infobase Learning”). People began to wonder if the capital punishment was really constitutional.
The Bill of Rights derives from the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, the colonial struggle against king and Parliament, and a gradually broadening concept of equality among the American people. The bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse. The absence of a "bill of rights" turned out to be an obstacle to the Constitution's ratification by the states. It would take four more years of intense debate before the new government's form would be resolved. The Federalists opposed including a bill of rights on the ground that it was unnecessary. In the end, popular sentiment was decisive. Recently freed from the despotic English monarchy, the American people wanted strong guarantees that the new government would not trample upon their newly won freedoms of speech, press and religion, nor upon their right to be free from warrant less searches and seizures. So, the Constitution's framers heeded Thomas Jefferson who argued: "A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference." The American Bill of Rights, inspired by Jefferson and drafted by James Madison, was adopted, and in 1791 the Constitution's first ten amendments became the law of the land. Early American mistrust of government power came from the colonial experience itself. Most historians believe that the pivotal event was the Stamp Act, passed by the English Parliament in 1765. Taxes were imposed on every legal and business document.
A significant aspect of the eighth amendment to the United States Constitution is that the infliction of cruel and unusual punishments is prohibited. However, interpretations of the definition of what a cruel and unusual punishment consists of have become extremely ambiguous. For example, many argue that the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is cruel to take another person’s life willingly; however, others argue that it is acceptable if it is done in a controlled and humane manner. Over the course of the United States history, punishments have ranged from public whippings
The death penalty debate in the United States is dominated by the fraudulent voice of the anti-death penalty movement. The culture of lies and deceit so dominates that movement that many of the falsehoods are now wrongly accepted as fact, by both advocates and opponents of capital punishment. (Sharp) Opponents of capital punishment are extremely outspoken and vehement in their arguments. The American Civil Liberties Union believes the death penalty violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment. However, the death penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment, the authors of the United States Constitution’s Eighth Amendment related “cruel and unusual” punishment to methods used in ages past. The Eighth Amendment was created to outlaw such practices as bur...
In 1789 James Madison introduced the Bill of Rights-the first ten amendments of the Constitution, to the First Congress. The Bill was heavily influenced by Virginia’s Declaration of Rights and used primarily to protect the citizen’s rights and liberties as well as, as a limitation on the federal government. The “original Constitution contained few guarantees” for civil rights and liberties therefore, the Bill of Rights strengthened them mitigating fears about the new national government (O’Brien 324). Madison and Anti-Federalists hoped to place the same restrictions on states. They found the Bill of Rights practical, explicit, and essential while Federalists found it unnecessary and potentially dangerous. Hamilton seeks justification against the Bill of Rights using the Constitution’s preamble which briefly notes the “liberty” and “prosperity” afforded to the American people (326). He also argues that the Bill may be dangerous because these exceptions being placed on powers have not yet been granted (326). Nonetheless, in September on 1789, Congress proposed 12 amendments to state legislatures which were shortly ratified thereafter in 1791 (326).
“The case Against the Death Penalty.” aclu.org. American Civil Liberties Union, 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2013
Pasquerella, Lynn. “The Death Penalty in the United States.” The Study Circle Resource Center of Topsfield Foundation. July 1991. Topsfield Foundation. 03 Feb 2011. Web.
Starr, I. (1978). The idea of Liberty: First Amendment Freedoms. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing.