The Eight Amendment
The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the setting of excessive bail or the imposition of excessive fines. Punishments that have been declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court include torture and loss of citizenship. The Court has also excluded punishment that is excessive in relation to the crime committed, such as prison sentences for narcotics addiction.
This prohibition against excessive fines and cruel and unusual punishment helps insure that objectivity, reason, and justice rather than vindictiveness and revenge guide the costs imposed upon a criminal for his indiscretion of another’s rights.
In Furman v. Georgia, the Court struck down all existing capital punishment statutes by ruling that the optional death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment. Judges pointed out that in most states there were no guidelines for the sentence to follow, and therefore judges and juries had unlimited Many states, then passed new statutes making capital punishment mandatory for certain crimes; in the 1976 case of Gregg v. Georgia, the Court found that these did not per se violate the Eight Amendment.
The Supreme Court then decided on a standard by which the death penalty was to be judged. They based their decision on the evolving standards of decency that marks the progress of a maturing society. The court then declared that any punishment must accord with the basic concept of the dignity of man that underlies the Eight Amendment. A punishment cannot result merely in needless suffering, but must serve a social purpose and be proportionate to the crime.
The evolving standards of decency was applied in Enmund v. Florida. Enmund was the driver of a getaway car who was sentenced to death by the felony-murder statute in Florida. The Supreme Court found a consensus against the death penalty in such a situation; Enmund s death sentence was vacated. It also concluded that a person who did not kill, attempt to kill, or intend to kill can be sentenced to death on the grounds that he has reckless indifference to the value of human life.
This was the case in Tison v. Arizona. The Tison brothers, along with other members of their family, planned and undertook the escape of their father from prison where he was serving a life sentence for having killed a guard during a previous escape. Petitioners entered the prison with a chest filled with guns, armed their father and another convicted murderer, later helped to abduct, detain, and rob a family of four, and watched their father and the other convict murder the members of that family with shotguns. Although they both later stated that the shooting surprised them, neither brother made any effort to help the victims, but drove away in the victims’ car with the rest of the escape party. After the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the brothers’ individual convictions for capital murder under that State’s felony-murder and accomplice-liability statutes, the brothers collaterally attacked their death sentences in state post conviction proceedings, alleging that Enmund v. Florida, which had been decided in the interim, required reversal.
However, the State Supreme Court determined that they should be executed, holding that Enmund requires a finding of “intent to kill,” and interpreting that phrase to include situations in which the defendant intended, contemplated, or anticipated that lethal force would or might be used, or that life would or might be taken in accomplishing the underlying felony. Despite finding that the brothers did not specifically intend that the victims die, plan the homicides in advance, or actually fire the shots, the court ruled that the basic intent was established by evidence that the brothers played an active part in planning and executing the breakout and in the events that lead to the murders, and that they did nothing to interfere with the killings nor to disassociate themselves from the killers afterward. Although only one of the brothers testified that he would have been willing to kill, the court found that both of them could have anticipated the use of lethal force.
Conclusion
After reading this book and studying additional cases dealing with the Bill of Rights, I have come to realization of just how fortunate I, along with the rest of the United States citizens, truly am. There are many things that we take for granted each day; rights that we could never imagine living without. Our government has gone to the depths of every level so that we can live the way we do; how often we forget that there was a time when things were not as simple.
Our judgments lie in the hands of the Supreme Court and its justices, who every day are forced to make monumental decisions. We are extremely fortunate that they have a document such as this to look into and help them come up with their decisions.
I think that although there have been considerable problems, we should praise our government for taking that extra step to the next level and trying to bestow upon us rights for every citizen.