Case Citation: Nix, Warden of the Iowa State Penitentiary v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 104…
As the attorney for Joseph, the inmate in Louisiana, I’m writing to defend his 8th amendment rights. Joseph has committed murder, sentencing him to death. In his situation, he was attempting to kill himself but misfired murdering his roommate in the other room. This accident should not be punished by death as it wasn’t attempting. Joseph’s sad and unusual case mustn’t go to the worst stage of punishment and we plead for a life in prison instead of a lethal injection.…
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 case deals with the eighth amendment and shows, the freedom to “ Be able to be heard before physical punishment is given.” In the end of this case the supreme court took a vote on who went with the “ Wright ” side or the “ Ingraham “ side. Ingraham lost with the vote of 5-4. The court says that “ Public school student could be paddled without being heard.’ The court says they ruled this was because “ The eighth amendment doesn’t contain the word “Criminal” so the court should not impose that limitation.…
In the Attica state prison in New York, prisoners rioted because they thought they should have better living conditions and treatment. Some 2,000 inmates attacked the guards and burned down the building. The police recovered control but the prisoners demanded more privileges in return for about 35 hostages they held. The police force attacked anyway and a total of 43 people died. Records of what happened at Attica were concealed for 50 years.…
After reading “The Cost of Solitary Confinement,” I agree that the use of solitary confinement should be abolished in prison. Before the reading, I have never heard of such a thing as solitary confinement. Once I started reading the story, I immediately thought this was a foul in wrong thing to be doing, and was flabbergasted that it was even existed in our prisons today. There are many different reasons that I agree with this, but I'm only going to be focusing on if you of them. First off, if none of you are familiar with solitary confinement is, I'll give you a little run down.…
One defining case in this history of torture laws is that of Hamdi V. Rumsfeld (2002) and Hamdan V. Rumsfeld (2006). Both of these cases involved former detained individuals at Guantanamo Bay, one of the aforementioned secret prisons. In Hamdi V. Rumsfeld, the legality of indefinite detention and suspension of Habeas Corpus for “enemy combatants” was questioned. The only decision that SCOTUS was able to rest on was the Executive Branch does not have the power to hold a U.S. citizen indefinitely without basic due process protections enforceable through judicial review, which effectively extended the rights of Habeas Corpus. With this right in place, Salim Hamdan brought Attorney General Rumsfeld again to the Supreme Court, to put the constitutionality of Guantanamo Bay to the test of Judicial Review once again. The following decisions were made; “Military commissions are legitimate forums to try enemy combatants because they have been approved by Congress.…
The United States prison system is notorious for the way it treats its inmates. There are so many theories, and facts to back up the claim that the prison system is not working the way it was intended to be, and it continues to be a growing issue that the government is not addressing. Further, within the already complicated prison system, there is another issue. Solitary confinement, which was originally supposed to be used as a short term punishment within prisons, or jails, has now become an integrated part of prison life (Edge, 2014). Solitary Nation, is 2014 documentary highlights the damages that solitary confinement is doing to people (Edge, 2014). Individuals whom have not shown any signs of degrading mental health come out of segregation, or as the inmates call it, “seg,” disturbed (Edge, 2014).…
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.…
Most people understand what solitary confinement from films or television shows that revolve around a prison. The prisoner is sent to a cell where they have zero human interaction, unless it is with the prison guards escorting the prisoner for vital human needs such as eating, which is also done alone. It is a punishment for the inmates that have been deemed unsafe to have around the normal population of the prison, or have done something wrong that caused the prison to send them to solitary to punish the prisoner for what they have done. I was originally someone who believed something such as this may seem simple enough to understand and was a humane way of dealing with a problematic prisoner, when in reality, it is much more traumatic for…
The Eighth Amendment: It prohibits excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment. In the case of Atkins v. Virginia, the facts brought to the court was that the defendant, Daryl Atkins was tried for capital murder and sentenced to death for the shooting of a victim named Eric Nesbitt. Atkins had been smoking and drinking all day before he decided to walk to a convenient store and hold Nesbitt at gun point, upon Daryl’s dissatisfaction with the money he took, he kidnaped Nesbitt, taking him to an ATM to with drawl 200 dollars, along with a friend named William Jones, in Nesbitt’s car. When Daryl was satisfied with the money taken, he further continued his violence by driving Nesbitt to an isolated area, forcing him out of the vehicle, and then shot Nesbitt eight times killing him.…
Let me take you back to one of the darkest days in American history. Monday April 5th, 2013 in Boston Massachusetts two men by the names of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Anzorovich Tsarnaev partook in an act of terror on US soil. Two trash can bombs were planted nearby the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon, and the damage these bombs did will forever live in infamy. After the attack, a man hunt through the streets of Boston took place tracking down the men who had commit a mass crime and an act of pure evil. The first of the two brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was shot when he was found; however, the second brother was later captured and taken into custody. Now here lies the question, what punishment is appropriate for someone who committed an act of terror, killing three and injuring over 200…
During World War II, Millions of people were put into death or concentration camps and almost all of them suffered some form of mental illness afterwards. These people were forced to let go of basic human emotions and work for the people trying to get rid of them. Even though, they tried to stay with God through everything, their faith was tested. When they were questioning their own religion, they went through almost manic states. Being confined and stripped to almost nothing made them feel and act as if everything was hopeless.…
The eighth amendment is defined as “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted (Lectlaw, 2010). This amendment was adopted as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791. The eighth amendment serves the purpose of protection of those who are innocent until proven guilty and to ensure that all persons are treated fairly in the criminal justice system.…
On January 26, 2016 Former president Barak Obama took actions against solitary confinement against juvenile. He announces that he will revoke solitary confinement against juvenile and such acts will be banned. He emphasizes that low level infraction and mentally ill prisoner are spending excessive amount of time in solitary confinement and this does not bring any good impact on the individuals but long lasting psychological problems. He states “How can we subject prisoner’s confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our community as a whole people.” Former president Obama call upon the case of young 22-year-old Kaleif, who spend approximately 2 years of solitary confinement at the age of 16 years old for accusingly…