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.…
This article discusses the Eighth Amendment, which states that “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” According to the child rape statute in Louisiana, the death penalty or life imprisonment is being administered to convicted pedophiles, as such; research on mental abnormality, and Forensic Psychology to assess the punishment. The author of this article is Brian Sellers, BA, University of North Carolina, and works in the Department of Criminal Justice. As a knowledgeable individual of the law, he explored the pros and cons whether the death penalty is appropriate for pedophiles, hence the many studies being conducted to support his point. This article will highlight…
1. According to Madison, why should a government not try to remove the causes of factions? Madison believed that these factions would have a negative effect on individual freedoms and liberties.…
The first eight amendments in the Bill of Rights were intended to protect Americans ' specific personal rights. The Founding Fathers recognized the importance of these rights and fought so that the people in the United States would have the independence that no other nation had known. These same men were well aware of the unavoidable sacrifices they were going to have to make. Listing every right that a person should possess was impossible to fit into ten amendments. Therefore, congress made the final two amendments in the Bill of Rights to be an all inclusive statute in an effort to prevent the United States government from discovering a loophole and gaining too much power. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments are the final two statutes in the Bill of Rights which outlines the limited control of the government and even more importantly the power of the people.…
The Federal Government showed to be ineffective under the Articles of Confederation. The Government lacked power, with large state governments showing to be superior. The U.S Constitution proposed a new form of government. With the addition of three separate branches of government, being, legislative, executive, and judicial, the Constitution also created a stronger Federal Government, weakening state governments. As southern states with larger populations were against the ratification of the Constitution, northern states consisting of fewer, more wealthy people, supported it. Federalists and Antifederalists took sides, prompting debate over a solution to the issue. The writings of the U.S Constitution produced major concerns at the center of the Constitutional Convention as the future of America had to be written.…
The author of the Bill of Rights is President James Madison,in despite of the fact that when he wrote the Bill of Rights in 1789 he wasn't president yet. James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights in 1789 because he wanted better constitutional protection for individual liberties. James Madison thought that the passing of the Bill of Rights in the House was entirely unnecessary and referred to it as the "nauseous project of amendments. "Also,when James Madison rose to his feet on June 8,1789 and put forward an idea adding the Bill of Rights to the Constitution through a series of amendments ,he was acting more politically more than philosophically. He was trying to crush the opposition to the new Constitution by taking away the issue that had the…
Twelve years after declaring independence, the American people were struggling to articulate their vision for government. They were acutely aware of the shortcomings of a weak central government under the Articles of Confederation, yet they still felt strongly that the individual states maintain their power. James Madison drafted the Virginia Plan in 1787, with a goal of stabilizing the budding nation by according more authority to a central government than before. These resolutions would ultimately become a new Constitution. It was in January 1788, after five states had ratified but eight were still skeptical, that Madison penned a letter to the Independent Journal, wherein he detailed his rationale for the larger federal government.…
Cruel and unsual punshiment is the eighth Amendment to the Counstitution of the United States. Anyone that has convicted of a crime have the right to be free of Curel and unsual during the time of jail or even prison. The eighth Amendment is almost the same as part of the 1689 English Bill of Rights. The amendment was written in because of a man named Titus Oastes lied and hurt many innocent people because of it. James Madison also know as “Father of the Constitution” wrote this amendment in 1789 the amendment was ratified on December 15, 1791.…
The “Cruel and Unusual Punishment” Clause of the Eighth Amendment came from the English Bill of Rights that were adopted in 1689. This provision was written into the English Bill of Rights after Titus Otis, who lied causing many innocent people to be executed, was punished in a cruel and unusual way at the time. George Manson first used the cruel and unusual punishment clause in 1776 when he drafted the Declaration of Rights for the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1791, the clause was added to the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. People feared that if this clause was not added that Congress would abuse its power and use cruel and unusual punishments as a tool to oppress them.…
Prior to Marbury v Madison, the Supreme Court only received it's judicial powers through the construction of the Constitution and what legislature enacted. Marbury v Madison was known as the first judicial review conducted by the Supreme Court. As a result of the Supreme Court's decision in Marbury v Madison, it gave the court its power to review the acts of Congress and the Executive and to oppose any acts of the legislature and the Executive that violated Constitutional rights of all citizens in the United States. The Supreme Court began its rise to an equal branch of the government.…
James Madison begins his famous Federalist 10 paper by stating that a strong argument in favor of the Constitution is the fact that it creates a government in control of the chaos, violence, and destruction caused by the factions in society. James Madison defines a faction as group of people who collectively work together to protect and promote their own economic interests and political opinions. In my opinion, these factions are inevitable, and this because of human nature and attraction theory. When people hold certain ideologies, possess specific amounts of wealth, and possess different amounts of property, they will most likely associate themselves with people who are most similar to them. Factions in society are completely opposite and…
The VIII Amendment in The US Constitution specifies that cruel or unusual punishment shall not be used for any person who has committed a crime. This provision is provided in the US Constitution to ensure that even if a person is proven guilty of having committed a crime that the punishments handed down will not be unorthodox, unusual or does not respect the dignity of life. Sharia Law uses extremely unusual measures; for instance, if a person is caught stealing, no matter their gender, shall have their hands cut off if they have done something contrary to the law (Fersch, 2007). Another surprising fact is that there have been situations in which both the victim and their assailant have received the same punishment even though it is very clear…
A) James Madison was given the title “Father of the Constitution” because of his success in creating and writing the constitution. However he was not the sole creator of the constitution, but he was one of the main contributors to the document. He is widely known for the Virginia Plan, which brought forth many ideas that would be used in the Constitution. James Madison was such a huge contributor that in The Summer of 1787, it says “Never missing a day of the convention, never leaving chamber for more than ‘a casual fraction of an hour,’ Madison worked on his notes every evening throughout the sultry summer” (Stewart 48). In addition to his as his incredible strive for excellence, Madison was also the first delegate to arrive at the Convention…
“One of the most brilliant men in the history of the United States”. That is how James Madison is described in this video. One of the most influential founding fathers was born March 1751 in Port Conway, Virginia. Although he was weak from illness most of his life, he didn’t let it stop him. He was extremely intelligent and loved reading and writing. James eventually went on to present day Princeton University where he studied numerous subjects including history. After college, he returned home where he had a large interest in the rebellion against Britain. In 1779 Madison was elected into the Continental Congress. The Articles of Confederation were failing and James knew it. He began working hard studying the articles and devising plans to revise them to give the young nation a strong form of government. At the convention he took detailed notes and debated almost every issue.…
The 13th Amendment, passed by Congress January 31, 1865, and ratified December 6, 1865, states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The passing of this amendment freed slaves and made it illegal to have slaves, but the 13th Amendment did not give African-Americans the equal rights that they longed for. Consequently, slavery was a major setback for African-Americans leaving them deprived of education, which in the long run made it difficult for African-Americans to obtain any type of power in the United States. This shortfall of education hindered African-Americans from…