Bill+of+Rights+hughem19

=The 8th Amendment= "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

Description
This amendment prevents criminals on trial to be protected from an extreme amount of money for fines and bail. This amendment will also prevent people who have done wrong to be protected from cruel and unusual punishments that involve hurting people in an inhumane way and/or publicly embarrassing them in front of a crowd.

Historical Applications
This amendment first started when a debate in the court room between "a bail shall be required," or "a bail shall not be required." The supreme court overheard this debate and decided to make a limit for the bail and the defendant must request to have the bail lowered on trial. This amendment was created so that if someone is in jail, but has been given an extremely high amount of money to pay for bail, they might not be able to acquire such money while in jail and be stuck without a chance.

Today's Application
This amendment is still applied today every time the law is broken. A criminal has the rights of not being executed in cruel or unusual ways, and excessive fines cannot be charged. Today, there has been debate over the topic of what is "cruel and unusual." Many prisoners that have been sentenced to the death penalty have been executed by lethal injection, supposedly causing no pain. Angel Diaz took thirty four minutes to die, twice the amount and the burns on his arms made a clear sign that the lethal injections are painful. This is an example of how the court system must bring out the eighth amendment and bring a solution to this problem today.

[|The Eighth Amendment Today] [|The Eighth Amendment]
 * [|History of the Eighth Amendment]**