The 8th Amendment

The 8th Amendment

In the United States Constitution, the 8th Amendment prohibits the use and practices of cruel and unusual punishment. What exactly is considered to be cruel and unusual punishment? This question is a hot topic among America's many different current controversies. Many people are saying that the use of capital punishment (to be sentenced to death as a penalty in the eyes of the law [a capital crime]. An execution [capital punishment]) is a direct violation of the 8th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (Capital Punishment). They say there should be another way to deal with these criminals other than having them executed. The purpose of this paper is to give a brief history of the death penalty and state some alternative forms of punishment along with opposing viewpoints. As t which one is right, that's up to you to decide.

Capital punishment has been a part of our government since the seventeenth century (The Death Penalty in America). The criminal law that we had here was just a variation colony by colony, on the law of England. Although the capital law of the thirteen colonies differed from one another, many interesting and important details concerning the death penalty and various other things occurred during the century and a half of the colonial period. All of the colonies authorized public executions by hanging as the mandatory punishment for various crimes against the state, the person, and the property (The Death Penalty in America).

In the early nineteenth century, English criminal law imposed the death penalty for a wide range of crimes from murder, treason, rape, to such stupid things as petty theft. Of all of the nonhomocidal crimes particularly by death, rape was...

... middle of paper ...

... exited the house.

Unknown to Furman, he had hit Micke in the chest and he had died from his wounds. Lanell, wife of the victim called the police and they found Furman lying under his house. Furman was arrested and formally charged with murder. From this case, the Supreme Court stated that the use of capital punishment was not unconstitutional (Furman vs. Georgia: Constitution and the Death Penalty).

Many opposers of the death penalty say that life in prison is just as good as the death penalty. They also say that a person can change. They would allow a convicted murder the chance for probation and a chance to kill again. They would also allow the convicted person to be on a work release program.

Is the death penalty fair and just? That depends on the person and the circumstance, so who is right and who is wrong? That's up to the courts to decide.