Mark George The Significance Of The Eight Amendment

The death penalty violates the eight Amendment of the United States Constitution that forbids cruel and unusual punishment. John M. Sheb and John M. Sheb II wrote in their book Criminal Law and Procedure that the eight amendment of the United States Constitution has been employed to limit the definition of crime. The authors mentioned the case of Robinson v. California where the Supreme Court, relying on the cruel and unusual punishment clause, found it unacceptable the state law that made crime the use of narcotics. The law was struck down because the Court determined that one couldn’t be punished merely for status without committing a criminal act (Sheb, 70-71). The Death penalty practices serve to be inconsistent with the fundamental laws and values in America’s democratic system. The meaning of cruel and unusual punishment lies on the person who perceives it, does he/she perceive it would be addressed depending on his/her point of view about human being’s dignity.
There are many unjust cases of people with mental limitations that do not understand their punishment and consequences, however they have been sentenced to Capital Punishment.
Mark George indicates in his article The Relevance of The Eight Amendment to the US Death Penalty in the 21st Century, that people with mental retardation faced high risks of wrongful convictions because they might make wrongful of false confessions. The case of Atkins v. Virginia is a clear example of cruel and unusual punishment. In 1996, the American Association of Mental Retardation declared Atkins mentally incapable. However, the court sentenced him to capital punishment. It wasn’t until 2001 that Atkins was exonerated of capital punishment due to his mental condition. Chief Justice Warren explained, “The basic concept underlying the 8th amendment is nothing less than the dignity of man… The Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society” (George,
9).
Death penalty is a failure correctional punishment and must be abolished for the following reasons: Death Penalty has been inflicted on innocent people, Death penalty is arbitrary, it discriminates against certain ethnic and racial groups and it is very expensive to justify its use.
Supporters of capital punishment, consider it as a necessary form of retribution for terrible crimes however, it has been proven that capital punishment can be and has been inflicted on innocent people. Schmalleger mentions in his book an embarrassed statistic for the American Criminal Justice System. The Death Penalty Information Center claims between 1973 and 2009, 133 people in 25 states were freed from death row after it was determinate that they innocent of the capital crime they were convicted. One can imagine how many innocent people have died for wrongful convictions. The reason why the 133 people were exonerated of their convictions was thanks to the analysis of DNA. The study, Convicted by Juries, exonerated by Science, effectively demonstrated that the judicial process can be flawed. During the test 28 cases were found in which defendants had been wrongly convicted and spend a long prison term (Schmalleger, 399- 401).
DNA practice is basically a new approach to Criminal Justice in different states. There are many states that have recently adopted DNA practices one of them is Florida. In 2006 a Florida resident Alan Grotzer was freed from prison after spending 24 years behind bars, he was convicted of raping a 12 year old girl and a woman but, DNA tests later proved he did not commit those felonies (Schmalleger, 401). 24 years that Mr. Alan Grotzer will never get back, it is just like you killed someone for twenty-four years and suddenly you decide to give them their life back. What do you think this man can do? How many things we could possibly do and he couldn’t? What about his family? His children? Is this what death penalty supporters call retribution? This man was depraved of freedom because of a broken system that does not know the meaning of excessiveness, dignity, morality and respect to human lives. This is just one of many cases that demonstrate the shameful of an unjust and arbitrary system that support capital punishment.