The Eighth Amendment - Freedom from Humanity

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

 You do not need to look far back into history to find reasons why we need the eighth amendment. There is no end to the cruelty people have inflicted on others. Even our own country has not always done the right thing with methods of execution, fines, and jail conditions.

This is a picture of a Saddam era prison. Just ten years ago this was a place where you would expect to see people tortured for political information, or just as punishment.

I'm very proud to come from a country that doesn't light people on fire or drill through their kneecaps.


The Eighth Amendment should promise me and every American, that even if you break the law and are convicted, you will not be tortured and abused... but it not always done so.

Of course this scene is dramatized... I'll admit that, however there is one known case of someone's head catching fire during an execution. How did this (does this) get by the Eight's Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause. It is obviously cruel. If you were suffering on your death bead and wanted to be put out of your misery would you be headed for a bottle of cyanide or the power outlet? Electrocution is obviously more painful than hanging or firing squad, and I'm pretty sure the founding fathers would find the idea of it pretty unusual.

Maybe people just got too caught up on the new technology, hopefully we won't ever discover how to make micro black holes. Maybe if we did someone would conclude that ripping people apart with a black hole is a humane method of execution.