Does the death penalty violate the 8th amendment?

[pro-bipartisan]

What do you think?

 

[Alex]

Depends on what the death penalty is being applied to. If someone robs a store and they get the death penalty, I would say that is cruel and unusual, therefore it violates the 8th Amendment.

If a person gets the death penalty for intentionally killing another person, that is not cruel or unusual, so the 8th Amendment does not apply. The punishment fits the crime.

The only reason I can see for applying the death penalty is when the person in question directly killed another person(s) with intention.

 

[Real Korimyr #9]

It's been a standard practice in the majority of human cultures for all of human history, so it can hardly be described as "unusual."

And as far as being "cruel," how do you suppose it compares to being locked in a cage with murderers and rapists for forty years?

No, if anything is a violation of our 8th Amendment, it is the prison system.

 

[Caine]

What do you think?

Nope.
They were using the death penalty right after they wrote the 8th amendment, while the writers of the amendment were still alive and kicking.

I think they would know what violates their amendment more than we would know now.

 

[pro-bipartisan]

Nope.
They were using the death penalty right after they wrote the 8th amendment, while the writers of the amendment were still alive and kicking.

I think they would know what violates their amendment more than we would know now.

Actually some people were against it such as Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Benjamin Rush.

 

[Caine]

Actually some people were against it such as Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Benjamin Rush.

Umm... Majority rules?

Besides, a rapist would be against the death penalty wouldn't they?

 

[pro-bipartisan]

sorry i don't feel like looking up all of the people that opposed the death penalty I just named a few.

 

[RightinNYC]

Definitely not. As Caine noted, at the time it was enacted all felonies were punishable by death.

I also don't think there is a proportionality requirement in the 8th Amendment, as some have argued.

 

[creativedreams]

sorry i don't feel like looking up all of the people that opposed the death penalty I just named a few.

There was a time when we hung horse thieves...

The out of touch bleeding hearts changed that and even pushed the issue to the other extreme of overcomplicating our laws. This is what happens when emotions cloud logical thinking...

 

[Scarecrow Akhbar]

What do you think?

No.

As practiced in normal ways, by hanging, by firing squad, by poison gas, by electric chair, by namby-pamby lethal injection, none of those are unnecessarily cruel, as opposed to say, death by anthill or death by burial in the sand up to your neck below the high tide mark, or death by drawing and quartering, or death by getting pelted with rocks, or whatever.

Nor is it unusual.

Hence it conforms to the either Amendment.

 

[creativedreams]

No.

As practiced in normal ways, by hanging, by firing squad, by poison gas, by electric chair, by namby-pamby lethal injection, none of those are unnecessarily cruel, as opposed to say, death by anthill or death by burial in the sand up to your neck below the high tide mark, or death by drawing and quartering, or death by getting pelted with rocks, or whatever.

Nor is it unusual.

Hence it conforms to the either Amendment.

We should put people on death row on devises connected to the web like in that movie "Untraceable".....let the people vote!

Perhaps take it a step farther and charge membership to the website to offset the expensive costs of executing

States sell lottery tickets to help their budgets, so why would this be much different in helping the death row budget?

 

[bilbus]

I prefer beheading.

Then the criminal's organs can be used to save other people's lives.

 

[creativedreams]

I prefer beheading.

Then the criminal's organs can be used to save other people's lives.

Perhaps we can set up an electric guillotine to a web site...

Set it so as the website gets hits the guillotine slides toward the killer
charge site membership to cover execution costs

What could possibly be a better idea?:mrgreen:

 

[bilbus]

or make them firght to the death with spoons. I would pay to see that.

 

[repeter]

or make them firght to the death with spoons. I would pay to see that.

How much, and where? Seriously, I think that the 8th amendment is about torture, and rendition. Executions aren't torturous. They are final. You die, end of story, and if you feel pain, boo-hoo, how about you complain about it after you're dead.