The Pros And Cons Of The Eighth Amendment

The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of the United is one of the shortest amendments, but its understanding has caused many debates. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted (). The 1960s brought challenges to the fundamental legality of the death penalty. Before then, the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments were interpreted as permitting the death penalty
(Death Penalty Information Center, 2015). The eighth Amendment was born from the 1689 English Bill of Rights. The Amendment became law in 1791. This amendment was brought upon because of the practice of some judges, who set bails high to avoid having to release defendant's on writs of habeas corpus(). In American practice, bail is determined case-by-case to ensure the defendant's presence at trail. The court takes into account the character of the defendant's and the previous behavior to declared that a bail amount would be "excessive" under the Eighth

It was not until the 21 century that the Supreme Court extended this to cover execution of those below 18 year of age and those who have a mental handicap. But they also ruled that other punishments should be considered cruel and unusual under circumstances, as in the 1958 case Trop vs. Dulles (). This case stated that the removal of a person's U.S. citizenship was unconstitutional because it caused them to be total destruction of society. Another case in 1977 was Coker vs. Georgia were the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional, for those found guilty of rape but the victim was not killed, to be sentenced to death (). These additions were a bad debate and highly controversial. In that they failed to take account the American legal history and only looking at cases from the previous