Arguing against the Death Penalty - The Eight Amendment (Essay Sample)

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Arguing against the Death Penalty - The Eight Amendment
Introduction
The eight amendment in United States constitution is a section of the bill of rights in the United States sought to decrease the high bail, fines, cruel or unusual punishment by the federal government imposes. The Supreme Court ruled out that the amendment on the cruel and unusual t is to be applied in all the states. The bill seeking to amend the constitution is derived from the English bill of rights of 1689. It ensures that no US citizen should be subjected to unusual and cruel punishment. However, most states in the states have been witnessed instituting the death penalty to date. In spite of the accused having serious crimes committed, they should be subjected to other means of disciplinary punishments that are more humane that in a civilized country like the United States (Bessler & John 25).
The amendment benefits the entire country because the citizens are protected from excessive powers of the legal system. Before, the death penalty was thought to be one that could deter people from committing heinous criminal offenses in the country. It was thought that it could set good examples to those with errant behaviors and not willing to change with a mere imprisonment or through a court fine. However, the majority have wondered whether loss of human life as a result of committing an offense is worth the price of death. Many questions have emerged in an attempt to know whether death penalty imposed on certain offenders is violating the eighth amendment as it restricts any cruel or unusual punishments to the criminals (Roza & Greg 46)
The background information on the eighth amendment
The amendment is adopted as part of the bill of rights. It resembles the provisions found in the English Bill of rights. It declares that excessive bails and fines are not required, nor should unusual, or cruel punishments should be imposed on the offenders or the law breakers. Although the court has unlimited powers, it should follow the law. The bill of rights declares that no imposition of excessive fines and cruel and unusual punishments should be inflicted on the citizens (Smith & Rich 35).
The bills imposed on the accused should be reasonable and just. It should be set such that it does not impose any restrictions on the accused. Not accused should be detained, fined nor bailed without trial. Anybody accused is presumed to be innocent unless the guilty is proven without any reasonable doubt. This is according to the US constitutional rights of the accused ((Smith & Rich 38).
According to the case brought filed to the Supreme Court in the year 1909 regarding waters-Pierre Oil Co. v. Texas, the court held that an excessive fine is fine that is glossily exclusive as to amount that could lead to deprivation of property without following the law process. The police of the state have the power to fix the punishment for crimes and penalties for the acts deemed to be unlawful. The court is not eligible in interfering with assigning the amounts of the fines and their imposition. Unless the excessive amounts close to the deprivation of the property that’s when the court can intervene. The court can only intervene with legislations and judicial actions of the state to enforce it when the fines imposed are excess.
The people tasked in setting the amounts of the fines and bails should consider in their decisions setting those that does not infringe the other rights of the citizen. It should be one that enables the accused enjoy other rights entitled to them. Lighter fines and bails are preferable that can facilitate the offenders from rehabilitating.
The death penalty, cruel and unusual punishment.
Death penalties are inhuman as they are cruel and should not be practiced in a civilized country. In addition to violating the human rights, it is also from the biblical point of view as it prohibits murder among the people. No human should be legally allowed to put another person into a death sentence for the argument of the punishments as a result of breaking the rules or violating the rights of other people in the country (Roza & Greg 49)
The claims supporting imposing death penalties to the criminals deter people from committing murder is unjustifiable. The argument is subjective to people’s opinions to propagate the acts to other places and eventually to pass it as a law. Other better methods can be used that are rational to deter people from committing murder. Studies suggest that the nation’s murder rates and the criminal behaviors can be curbed through addressing both the environmental and social factors that are the key initiators of the crimes. The socioeconomic health of a country is closely linked with the murder rate. For example, in the United States was on the rise during the depression. Some they have been found to have mental problems, and access to improved health care and socioeconomic health of the country reduces the rate or murder other than imposing the death penalties the criminals who commit murder. The Supreme Court in 1947 assumed that the cruel and punishments clause applied to the states. This was held during the determination of Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber. It was held that it is against the eighth amendment to inflict cruel and unusual punishments to the accused (ABC news par 2).
Death penalties are inhuman. Committing suicide is illegal. No one should attempt to do away with their lives even if they are aware that they are about to demise out of a terminal disease. No statute should be enacted that will legalize it. In such cases, it will be offending the society’s beliefs as they have evolved and changed over time incorporating values that work to ensure that no human is deprived off his/her life.
The accused who have been tried and found to be guilty should be taken to the rehabilitation centers. In the rehabilitation centers, they are supposed to be engaged in social activities that aimed at changing their current behaviors into more reformed one. They learn skills that they can use to lead their lives once they get out of the rehab centers. Continued training and exposure to other activities that alter their current behaviors and way of thinking will ensure that past acts are not repeated in the future, and newly acquired behaviors and skills will prevail when out of the rehabilitation centers (Roza & Greg 59)
There are other positive methods that the states can use to deter the people from committing apart from the imposition of the death penalties to the accused. Improving the socio-economic environments to the citizens will reduce the number of the cases. May people engage themselves in crimes in an attempt to acquire the resources that beyond their reach. With the improvement of the socioeconomic factors, the higher poverty levels will decline, and thus crimes will reduce. Detection of mentally handicapped persons by the state and free treatment to them will reduce the cases of the murder other than the actual death penalties (Geraghty, Joseph, & Don Sanders 57).
Counterargument
With the arguments to support the eradication of the excessive fines and unusual punishments to the people, arguments have emerged in an attempt to support the excessive imposition of the fines and bails and the unusual punishments such as the declaration of death penalties to the criminals. In the arguments, the claim is that the major prisons have been overcrowded with persons who have committed minor crimes. This an attempt to ensure the society is free from the criminals that commit murder. To solve the problem of the overcrowding of the major prisons, imposition of excessive fines and bails could act as a deterrent from committing the offenses other than overcrowding the major prisons with minor crimes that could be dealt with imposing fines on them.
Another counterargument is that the government will spend a lot of money in an attempt to rehabilitate the criminals so that they conform from their behaviors and then return to the society. Imposition excessive fines brings more revenues to the government and as well as a method of controlling the rate of crimes in the states. Embarking in rehabilitating the criminals will deprive the states the revenues they used to get and add them expenses in rehabilitating the affected criminals.
Resolution to the issue evidence
When the prisons are overcrowded in other countries, the state comes up with more prisons to ensure that those convicted of crimes are imprisoned and serve their term in prison. Large prisons are constructed to accommodate the growing number of the offenders. The offenders are involved in activities such as the construction of bridges in the less developed states. Others have different kinds of prisons to detain people according to the criminal offenses com...