Does anyone else agree that the death penalty violates the United States Eighth Amendment?
Our Supreme Court once banned the death penalty, but then reinstated it. They argued that in order for a punishment to be banned under the 8th amendment, it must be -both- cruel and unusual, and apparently in the minds of a majority of the court, it was not both. During most of our history the Supreme Court has been much more conservative than public opinion. Today it is especially so, with 7 Supreme Court justices having been appointed by Reagan and the two Bushes, representing a period of ‘neo-conservaitive’ thought which was fairly extreme and now, thankfully, is probably over. In US politics, especially in the last 30-40 years, politicians have bashed one another for being ‘soft on crime’. Nobody wanted to appear soft on crime, so politicians of both parties have tried to outdo one another in being ‘tough on crime’. So we have lowered the threshold for crimes (for instance, lowering the blood alcohol level at which one can be arrested for drunk driving), we have doubled the penalti
The Supreme Court is the final arbiter on whether or not the death penalty violates any part of the Constitiution, and, so far, it has not. The USA will have to find another way to abolish the death penalty. In fact, Americans are increasing aware of the problems with the death penalty system and hopefully, their elected legislators will catch up with them. The most telling problem is the inherent risk of irreversible errors. As of now, 139 wrongly convicted people on death row have been exonerated. The number keeps growing. The cost issue is another thing that Americans are finding out about.
