This paper reviews several judicial court decisions to seek the meaning of "cruel and unusual punishment" as based on the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Written in 2005; 1,010 words; 7 sources; MLA; $ 35.95
Paper Summary:
This paper explains that, on the Federal level, the decision to apply the death penalty depends on the definition of "cruel and unusual punishment" that is cited in the Eighth Amendment; however, the U. S. Supreme Court disagreed with the use of the death penalty, reflecting a moral concern when it has claimed that the punishment is freakish. The author points out that, in "Coker v. Georgia", the Supreme Court remanded the case because the death sentence is a "disproportionate penalty" for rape, based on "the objective evidence of present public judgment", the Eighth Amendment bars "barbaric" and "excessive" punishment. The paper states that the Supreme Court must still determine whether it is necessary to demonstrate that the racial discrepancy is a consequence of "a pattern of intentional discrimination" and determine how large a discrepancy must be shown to constitute a violation of equal protection and "cruel and unusual punishment" clauses.
From the Paper:
"The argument was formally raised in McCleskey v. Kemp, when an African-American petitioner was found guilty of killing a white police officer in an attempted armed robbery of a store. The accused man's habeas corpus petition included the Baldus study, a statistical study which shows that there is a disparity in the imposition of the death penalty in Georgia, claiming that capital punishment is determined based on the murder victim's race and, to a lesser degree, the criminal's race. The study took more than 2,000 Georgia murder cases into account and conclusively determined that black murderers who kill white victims have the greatest likelihood of receiving the death penalty."
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