Amendment VIII (the Eighth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the U.S. Bill of Rights, prohibits excessive bail or fines, as well as cruel and unusual punishment. The phrases employed are taken from the English Bill of Rights. The Amendment has been made applicable to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment by the Supreme Court in 1962 (Robinson v. California 370 U.S. 660) Wikisource has original text related to this article: The United States Constitution The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... The United States Bill of Rights consists of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. ... The Bill of Rights 1689 is an English Act of Parliament with the long title An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown and known colloquially in the UK as the Bill of Rights. ...

Text

Excessive bail

In England, sheriffs originally determined whether or not to grant bail to criminal suspects. Since they tended to abuse their power, Parliament passed a statute in 1275 whereby bailable and non-bailable offenses were defined. The King's judges often subverted the provisions of the law. It was held that an individual may be held without bail upon the Sovereign's command. Eventually, the Petition of Right of 1628 argued that the King did not have such authority. Later, technicalities in the law were exploited to keep the accused imprisoned without bail even where the offenses were bailable; such loopholes were for the most part closed by the Habeas Corpus Act 1679. Thereafter, judges were compelled to set bail, but they often required impracticable amounts. Finally, the English Bill of Rights (1689) held that "excessive bail ought not to be required." Nevertheless, the Bill did not determine the distinction between bailable and non-bailable offenses. Thus, the Eighth Amendment has been interpreted to mean that bail may be denied if the charges are sufficiently serious. The Supreme Court has also permitted "preventive" detention without bail. In United States v. Salerno (1987), the Supreme Court held that the only limitation imposed by the bail clause is that "the government's proposed conditions of release or detention not be 'excessive' in light of the perceived evil." For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Look up Sheriff in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... List of Parliaments of England is a list of the sittings of the Parliament of England, from the reign of Edward IV to 1707 with some earlier named parliaments. ... // April 22 - The first of the Statutes of Westminster are passed by the English parliament, establishing a series of laws in its 51 clauses, including equal treatment of rich and poor, free and fair elections, and definition of bailable and non-bailable offenses. ... In English law, a petition of right was a remedy available to subjects to recover property from the Crown. ... 1628 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Habeas Corpus Act 1679 is an English statute passed during the reign of King Charles II to define and strengthen the ancient prerogative writ of habeas corpus, whereby persons unlawfully detained can be ordered to be produced before a court of law. ... Year 1689 (MDCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... United States v. ... Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ...

Cruel and unusual punishments

The Bill of Rights in the National Archives.

The use of the word and (instead of or) has been held to have some significance. Cruel punishments are allowable as long as more than one court system applies the punishment. Similarly, unusual punishments are permitted so long as they are not cruel, although some lawyers would argue that any unusual punishment is cruel. Thus, for example, three strikes laws have been upheld by the Court as not conflicting with this clause, because even if they are unusual, they are not cruel (in the sense that there is no physical torture). Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (4318x4592, 1500 KB) Description: THE BILL OF RIGHTS Credit: NARA [1] Usage: File links The following pages link to this file: United States Constitution United States Bill of Rights Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (4318x4592, 1500 KB) Description: THE BILL OF RIGHTS Credit: NARA [1] Usage: File links The following pages link to this file: United States Constitution United States Bill of Rights Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera... The National Archives building in Washington, DC The United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records. ... Three strikes laws are statutes enacted by state governments in the United States which require the state courts to hand down a mandatory and extended period of incarceration to persons who have been convicted of a serious criminal offense on three or more separate occasions. ...

The Eighth Amendment forbids some punishments entirely, and forbids some punishments that are excessive when compared to the crime.

In Furman v. Georgia (1972), Justice Brennan wrote, "There are, then, four principles by which we may determine whether a particular punishment is 'cruel and unusual'." Holding The arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... William J. Brennan, official portrait, 1976. ...

• The "essential predicate" is "that a punishment must not by its severity be degrading to human dignity," especially torture.
• "A severe punishment that is obviously inflicted in wholly arbitrary fashion."
• "A severe punishment that is clearly and totally rejected throughout society."
• "A severe punishment that is patently unnecessary."

Continuing, he wrote that he expected that no state would pass a law obviously violating any one of these principles, so court decisions regarding the Eighth Amendment would involve a "cumulative" analysis of the implication of each of the four principles. For other uses, see Torture (disambiguation). ...

Punishments completely forbidden

In Wilkerson v. Utah (1878, pertaining to methods of capital punishment), the Supreme Court commented that drawing and quartering, public dissecting, burning alive and disemboweling would constitute cruel and unusual punishment while determining that death by firing squad was as legitimate as the common method of that time, hanging. 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ... Drawing and quartering was part of the penalty once ordained in England for treason. ... Dissection is usually the process of disassembling something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the function and relationships of its components. ... Disembowelment is evisceration, or the removing of vital organs, usually from the abdomen. ...

Because it is the needless infliction of pain, torture is prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. For other uses, see Torture (disambiguation). ... Holding Qualified immunity is not available to prison officials for civil rights lawsuits alleging violations of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment for use of a hitching post. ...

The Court held in the case Trop v. Dulles (1958) that punishing a natural born citizen for a crime by taking away his citizenship is unconstitutionally excessive, being "more primitive than torture" because it involved the "total destruction of the individual's status in organized society". Holding At least as applied in this case to a native-born citizen of the United States who did not voluntarily relinquish or abandon his citizenship or become involved in any way with a foreign nation, § 401(g) of the Nationality Act of 1940, as amended, which provides that a... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Torture (disambiguation). ...

In Robinson v. California (1962), the Court decided, 6-2, that a California law authorizing a 90-day jail sentence for "be[ing] addicted to the use of narcotics" violated the Eighth Amendment, as narcotics addiction "is apparently an illness", and California was attempting to punish people based on the state of this illness, rather than for any specific act. Holding Punishing a person for a medical condition is a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Heroin bottle An addiction is a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individuals health, mental state or social life. ... The term narcotic, derived from the Greek word for stupor, originally referred to a variety of substances that induced sleep (such state is narcosis). ...

Punishments forbidden as excessive

Weems v. United States (1910) held that a punishment is cruel and unusual if it is excessive. (The Weems case dealt with a sentence of cadena temporal, a punishment which mandated "hard and painful labor", shackling for the duration of incarceration, and permanent civil disabilities.) Holding Court membership Chief Justice: Edward Douglass White Associate Justices: John Marshall Harlan, Joseph McKenna, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. ... Year 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

In Coker v. Georgia (1977), the Court declared that the death penalty was unconstitutionally excessive for rape of an adult female and, by implication, for any crime other than murder. However, some states are challenging this rule^[1] by enacting a death penalty statute for repeat child molesters. This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ...

Traditionally, the length of a prison sentence was not subject to scrutiny under the Eighth Amendment, regardless of the crime for which the sentence was imposed. It was not until the case of Solem v. Helm (1983) that the Supreme Court held that incarceration, standing alone, could constitute cruel and unusual punishment if it were "disproportionate" in duration with respect to the offense. The Court outlined three factors that were to be considered in determining if the sentence is excessive: "(i) the gravity of the offense and the harshness of the penalty; (ii) the sentences imposed on other criminals in the same jurisdiction; and (iii) the sentences imposed for commission of the same crime in other jurisdictions." The Court held that in the circumstances of the case before it and the factors to be considered, a sentence of life imprisonment without parole for cashing a $100 check on a closed account was cruel and unusual. However, in Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957 (1991), a fractured Court retreated from the strong test announced in Solem and held that for noncapital sentences, the Eighth Amendment only constrains the length of prison terms by a "gross disproportionality principle." Under this gross disproportionality principle, the Court sustained a mandatory sentence of life without parole imposed for possession of 650 grams or more of cocaine. 463 U.S. 277 (1983) Under South Dakota Law, Helm, who had written a check from a fictitious account and had reached his seventh nonviolent felony conviction since 1964, was mandatorily sentenced to life in prison with no parole. ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime, nominally for the entire remaining life of the prisoner, but in fact for a period which varies between jurisdictions: many countries have a maximum possible period of time (usually 50 years) a prisoner may be incarcerated, or require the... Holding Harmelins sentence, although harsh, does not violate the Eighth Amendments Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause; the Clauses individualized sentencing requirement, which evolved in the context of the Courts capital sentencing jurisprudence, does not apply to noncapital crimes. ...

Capital punishment

The Supreme Court's consistent ruling has been that capital punishment itself is not a violation of the Eighth (and Fourteenth) Amendment, but that many applications have been. Even the landmark case of Furman v. Georgia did not hold (even though it is sometimes claimed that it did) that capital punishment is per se unconstitutional. The Court declared the execution of the mentally retarded to be unconstitutionally cruel and unusual in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), and in Roper v. Simmons (2005) it declared the death penalty unconstitutionally cruel and unusual for people who were under age 18 at the time of their crime. Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially referred to by the... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ... Holding The arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. ... Mental retardation (abbreviated as MR), is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills (milestones) during childhood, and a significantly below-normal intellectual capacity as an adult. ... Holding A Virginia law allowing the execution of mentally handicapped individuals violated the Eighth Amendments prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments. ... Holding The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed. ...

The constitutionality of capital punishment itself is often challenged, usually on the grounds that it allegedly violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment. In Wilkerson v. Utah, the Supreme Court stated that death by firing squad was not cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment. The first significant challenge to reach the Court was Furman v. Georgia (1972), when the Supreme Court overturned the death sentences of Furman as well as two defendants in separate cases against Georgia and Texas, in a 5-4 decision. Of the five justices voting to overturn the death penalty cases, two found capital punishment itself to be unconstitutionally cruel and unusual; and three found that the statutes in these particular cases were meted out in a random and capricious fashion, discriminating against blacks and the poor. This, they said, made the application of the death penalty in these particular cases cruel and unusual. Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ... Execution by firing squad is a method of capital punishment, especially in times of war. ... Holding The arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

States with capital punishment rewrote the laws to address the Supreme Court's findings, and in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the Court found, in a 7-2 ruling, that Georgia's new death penalty laws passed Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment scrutiny: a bifurcated trial in which guilt and sentence were determined separately; and "there must be specific jury findings as to the circumstances of the crime or the character of the defendant, and the State Supreme Court thereafter reviews the comparability of each death sentence with the sentences imposed on similarly situated defendants to ensure that the sentence of death in a particular case is not disproportionate". Executions resumed in 1977. Holding The imposition of the death penalty does not, automatically, violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment. ... Year 1976 Pick up sticks(MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ...

Some states have passed laws imposing mandatory death penalties in certain cases; the Supreme Court has found these laws to be unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. Other statutes specifying factors for courts to use in making their decisions have been upheld. Some have not: in Godfrey v. Georgia (1980), the Supreme Court overturned a sentence based upon a finding that a murder was "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, and inhuman," as it deemed that any murder may be reasonably characterized in this manner. Similarly, in Maynard v. Cartwright (1988), the Court found that an "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel" standard was too vague. However, the vagueness of this language depends on how lower courts interpret it. In Walton v. Arizona, 497 U.S. 639 (1990), the Court found that the phrase "especially heinous, cruel, or depraved" was not vague because the state supreme court had expounded on its meaning. Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Holding Under the Sixth Amendment, a jury need not pass on the aggravated factors required to impose a death sentence under Arizona law. ...

Nevertheless, under the proportionality principle embodied in the Eighth Amendment, the Court has found that the death penalty may not be imposed for the crime of rape of an adult woman,^[2] for felony murder where the defendant was a minor participant in the crime,^[3] and on mentally retarded^[4] and juvenile offenders.^[5] The felony murder rule is a legal doctrine according to which anyone who commits, or is found to be involved in, a serious crime (a felony), during which any person dies, is guilty of murder. ...

;;;'

Darn Eighth Amendment

The Eighth Amendment makes it almost impossible to torture people in the US. This makes being President no fun as the Bush adminastration has figured out.

See also

• Capital punishment in the United States
• Cruel and unusual punishment
• Crime against humanity
• Human rights violation

Capital punishment in the United States is officially sanctioned by 37 of the 50 states, as well as by the federal government and the military. ... “Cruel And Unusual” redirects here. ... In international law, a crime against humanity consists of acts of persecution or any large scale atrocities against a body of people, as being the criminal offence above all others. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Human rights abuse. ...

References

1. ^ Dallas Morning News article
2. ^ Coker v. Georgia
3. ^ Felony Murder and the Death Penalty
4. ^ Atkins v. Virginia
5. ^ Roper v. Simmons

This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with felony murder. ... Holding A Virginia law allowing the execution of mentally handicapped individuals violated the Eighth Amendments prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments. ... Holding The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed. ...

External links