Effects of the 8th Amendment on American Law Essay

The bingle-eighth Amendment Excessive bail shall non be required, nor profuse fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.Ever since the Eighth Amendment was ratified by the states in 1791, it has been a key part of our Constitution. The Eighth Amendment has sheltered our multitude from many an(prenominal) things, including an overly high bail or unnatural punishments. It has ensured that in urbane matters, as well as criminal typefaces, the mickle of America be protected from an overly high bail and cruel and unusual punishments.The Eighth Amendment has stirred up many controversies with its many paths of interpretation, in that the U.S. amendments argon create verbally down on paper but sometimes not aright enforced. The 8th amendment is the star I favor least and is to be examined during this assignment. I take the double-minded position on the subject of the 8th Amendment of for and against this amendment. Is the Death punishment an Effective Punishmen t? In my opinion yes, with at least one important respect, it simply cannot be argued that a killer, once executed, can of all time kill again. The crime must fit the punishment in tack to justify, and this punishment must not favor anyone on the foundation of color. If this were the case I would without a doubt totally agree with this amendment, however, Studies show that in that respect are racial biases when the finish penalisation is carried out. Since the resumption of executions in the advance(prenominal) 1980s, 40 percent of those executed have been menacing.And more of decennary than not blacks were more often executed than were whites without having their conviction reviewed by any high court. The race of the victim and the defendant inevitably influences the decision to seek a death sentence. University of Iowa law professor David Baldus conducted an exhaustive criminal sentencing study in Georgia in the 1980s. He found that prosecutors sought the death penalty f or 70% of black defendants with white victims, but only 15% of black defendants with black victims. Similar patterns of racial bias are found crosswise the country. Over half of those on death row are people of color. Black men alone make up over 42% of all death row prisoners, though they account for only 6% of people living in the U.S. Nationwide, cases involving a white victim and a defendant of color are most likely to result in a death sentence.The Baldus study found that six out of ten defendants sentenced to death in Georgia forkilling a white soulfulness would not have received a death sentence had their victim been black. A case involving a white person was over quartette times more likely to result in a death sentence than was a comparable black victim case. In medico the state with one of the highest percentages of African Americans on death row a death sentence is eight times more likely in a white victim case than a black victim case, according to a 1987 Public Defe nders Office study. near half of those executed since 1976 have been people of color, with blacks alone accounting for 35%. All told, 82% have been put to death for the murder of a white person. Only 1.8% was whites who had been convicted of killing people of African, Asian, or Latin descent. Meanwhile, people of color are the victims in more than half of all homicides. Since 1930, one in two persons executed was black.Ultimately I must fend on the side of opposition with this Amendment on the basis of bias and paint a picture a moratorium until a clear version of this amendment is established with clear needful sentences regardless of the victim or the defendants ethnicity and does what it initially intended to do which is protect The American citizen without breaking other amendments in the process.Criminal court procedures are at an all time slow and speedy trials are a thing of the past. The government spending and income policies need to be modified to red-brick times. Als o the treason penalty should be more heinous in the new world.ins an important part of our government.Works CitedShortall, Joseph M. Merrill, Denise W. Education Information resourcefulness Center City Publisher N/A, 1987.McCLESKEY v. KEMP- 481 U.S. 27 Ty caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=481&invol=279www.law.uiowa.edu/faculty/david-baldus.php