The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibiting the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment. The United States is one of five countries that still practice the death penalty. They’re 18 states in the United States that abolished the death penalty and 32 states currently still use the death penalty after convicted of a capital offense. There about 41 Federal Capital Offense, if found guilty of the offense the defendant could be sentenced to the death penalty. My view on the death penalty is if someone committee one of the forty-one Federal Capital Offense should be punished. I also understand why people are against the death penalty because two wrongs don’t make a right. At the end of the day, they’re consequences for your actions. There have been many different death penalty cases, but the most controversial are when the defendant is under the age of 18. The defendant is tried as an adult and is charged with capital offenses. Before 1988, the offenders who committed the crime when they were under the age of 18 were executed. In 1988, The U.S. Supreme Court decided that offenders under the age of 18 can’t be sentenced to death because is “cruel and unusual punishment.” Thompson v. Oklahoma was the cases the U.S. Supreme Court decided capital offenses committed by under age of 18 couldn’t be sentenced to death. In this case, the defendant was 15 years old at the time of the crime. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendant because they felt it violated the eighth amendment because it was “cruel and unusual punishment” for a 15-year-old to be sentenced to death. I believe that the crimes committed by the offender of any age is cruel and should get a sentence that fit the crime. I understand the U.S. Supreme Court ruling is base on the United States Constitution but the Constitution doesn’t specify what are “cruel and unusual punishment.” One thing is the defendant being sentenced to death when they’re underage, and the other being executed at a young age. In the past cases, a defendant who was under 18 years old were executed at age 28. I think the Eighth Amendment shouldn’t apply to under the age of 18 who committed a capital offense because there is an increase in violence by juveniles if there is no death penalty, juveniles would continue committing capital offenses, at least they would realize if they committed a crime they could get sentenced to death.
Sources:
http://crime.about.com/od/juvenile/i/juvenile_death_2.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Death_penalty_for_rape
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004927
http://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-viii
RE: Should the Eighth Amendments apply to an underage defendant who committed a capital punishment?
ReplyDeleteMs. Carolina Gomez, makes a good argument stating that she feels the eighth amendment should apply to everyone, including people underage. Her reasoning behind her statement is that it could potentially decrease the violence that is increasing in the youth. Carolina's problem is that children who create capital offenses should receive the punishment that has been put forth for the crime. But instead as she references the Thompson vs. Oklahoma Supreme Court case, the judges in this said that offenders under the age of 18 can not be sentenced to death due to "cruel and unusual punishment". So why if it is cruel for someone who is underage, why isn't it cruel for someone older? I agree with Carolina's argument, she made her statement and she had evidence, if you commit the crime you do the time, in this case you loose your life!