Amendment VIII

Amendment VIII

“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

The Eighth Amendment provides protection for the accused and the guilty. It ensures the accused will not be held in jail on a large bail, unless the crime is extremely serious, or unless the expensive bail is a “preventative measure” meaning the accused is dangerous. The “Excessive fines” clause prevents individuals from receiving excessive fines that are not warranted by the crime in criminal cases.

             The “Cruel and unusual punishment” clause is not clear about what cruel and unusual punishment is, but it protects citizens from receiving punishments that do not merit the crimes committed. This is one of the most controversial amendments because the question of whether or not the death penalty is “Cruel and unusual” has been upheld by the Court. There has also been controversy as to whether or not

The death penalty that we see today is not cruel and unusual, I believe that lethal injection is the best approach to the death penalty. I personally believe that the death penalty should only be used in the most extreme situations, such as with serial killers or mass murderers. I believe that there are other ways to combat violence, but it takes a holistic approach and requires a lot of money which citizens and Congress are not willing to pay. I have not heard of a situation where there has been a violation of ‘excessive fines or bails’. The current system we have now to determine bail seems to work well. Although this is an amendment that in text says very little, it encompasses so much and does a great job in doing so-this affects life or death in many instances, and yet the Court has upheld the legality of the death penalty under this amendment alone.   

The first part of this video addresses cruel and unusual punishment as it pertains to law enforcement-not to the death penalty and I like that they explored that aspect. Often times when we think of cruel and unusual punishment the first thing that comes to our minds is the death penalty. The 2^nd part of the video deals with excessive fines and bail. 

I chose this video because it was a funny parody of what the Eighth Amendment means. This video was short and to the point.

This video talks about more relevant issues that pertain to the Eighth Amendment such as non-citizens being detained for suspected terrorist reasons. It also talks about how the death penalty, at one time was ruled as unconstitutional, but later upheld. I wanted a video that looked at the Eighth Amendment from a point of view that wasn’t portraying how great it is to have, but rather shows the more contradictory side of the amendment.