8th Amendment Case Study

The Carr brothers should have been sentenced separately and given two different hearings. The Eighth Amendment may be unclear whether defendants must be given an individualized trial or not but the court’s Eighth Amendment cases have often insisted that defendants must be given “individualized sentencing” in order for the jury to find “an individualized determination” and decide whether the death penalty is appropriate. The issue is that the court has never insisted for defendants to be sentenced by themselves, at their own hearing, without any co-defendants present.