Bill of Rights

By: Breeanna Back, Ashley Ingram, and Crystal Jorgensen

The 8th amendment

• It was ratified on December 15, 1791• Cruel and Unusual Punishment • Official wording:

“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive

fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment

inflicted.”

What this means…

• The CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS CLAUSE

restricts the severity of punishments that state and federal

governments may impose upon persons who have been

convicted of a criminal offense.

Hudson vs. Woods and McMillian

• Keith Hudson, a Louisiana inmate, claimed that he was beaten by Marvin Woods and Jack McMillian, two prison guards, while their supervisor, Arthur Mezo, watched. .“

• Hudson argued that they had violated his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

• The District Court ruled that the guards had used force when there was no need to do so, violating the Eighth Amendment, and that Hudson was therefore entitled to damages.

• "When prison officials maliciously and sadistically use force to cause harm, contemporary standards of decency are always violated," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in the majority opinion.

• Decision: 7 votes for Hudson, 2 vote(s) against• The case was upheld

Ingraham v. Wright

• Petitioners' Claim: That officials at Drew Junior High School violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments by spanking them.

• Decision: The Supreme Court dismissed the case against Drew Junior High School, saying the school did not violate the students' constitutional rights.

• Powell said bail, fines, and punishment are part of the criminal justice system. Public schools are not part of that system, so they do not have to obey the Eighth Amendment.

First time the electric chair was used

• William Kemmler (1890) After Kemmler murdered his wife with an axe in 1889, he became a natural test subject for a new method of execution, ostensibly more humane than hanging or the firing squad: alternating current electricity, marketed by the inventor George Westinghouse. According to early witnesses, the gruesome execution took two tries over an eight-minute period.

Last time the electric chair was used

• Brandon Wayne Hedrick (2006):• Brandon Wayne Hedrick, executed for the rape and murder

of a young woman in Virginia, may go down in history as the last person executed by electric chair in the United States. In February 2008, the State of Nebraska ruled that electric chair executions--already on the decline--constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Due to the possibility of a successful court challenge based on the Nebraska reasoning, states in which the electric chair is still technically permitted may be disinclined to allow it as an option.