The issue: is the death penalty consistent with the eighth amendment's prohibition against the imposition of cruel and unusual punishments? introduction the supreme court considered particular applications of the death penalty in the 1940s and 1950s. In each case it upheld the state's action without addressing the larger issue of the death penalty's constitutionality. In 1947, for example, the court considered the case of willie francis, who louisiana had attempted to electrocute, but succeeded only in severely shocking and traumatizing, and who was then facing a second attempt by louisiana to put him to death. Francis argued that the anxiety brought on by his first experience in the chair made a second seating cruel and unusual punishment, but the court, voting 5 to 4, found that cruelty must be inherent in the method of punishment, and could not come from anticipation of the punishment. The four dissenters contended that death by installments was so cruel as to rival burning at the stake.

In so doing, the court announced a standard that would guide analysis in future death penalty cases. The court in trop said that the eighth amendment demanded that punishments be consistent with evolving standards of decency. in the 1960s, the naacp legal defense fund, led by professor anthony amsterdam mounted a full scale attack on the death penalty. Adopting a moratorium strategy, the ldf succeeded in blocking all executions for five years, creating a death row logjam. in furman v georgia in 1972, the court voted 5 to 4 to invalidate all then existing death penalty laws based on the inherent arbitrariness of their application. In a key concurring opinion, justices said the randomness of being executed in the united states compared to being struck by lightening.

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Most observers at the time concluded that there would never again be an execution in the united states. The court upheld georgia's new capital sentencing procedures, concluding that they had sufficiently reduced the problem of arbitrary and capricious imposition of death associated with earlier statutes. Which provided for bifurcated proceedings, one to determine guilt and one to determine whether to execute, has since become the model for statutes in death penalty states. In the death penalty phase of trials, jurors are now required to make specific findings concerning the presence or absence of mitigating and aggravating factors concerning the defendant's crime. the court continued to face questions concerning the appliction of the death penalty: to non murderers, to minors, to mentally disabled prisoners, to racial minorities. A challenge based on a study that showed murderers of white victims were far more likely to be sentenced to death than murderers of black victims. the court continues to address the constitutionality of the death penalty in special contexts. In 2002, the supreme court held in atkins v virginia that the death penalty was unconstitutional when applied to the mentally retarded. Voting 6 to 3, the court concluded that executions of the mentally retarded offended the evolving standards of decency test laid out in previous cases for evaluating the constitutionality of criminal punishments.

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The same test was applied in 2005 in roper v simmons to find that the death penalty could not be applied to persons under the age of 18 at the time of their crime. Justice kennedy, for the 5 to 4 court, wrote that it is fair to say that the united states now stands alone in a world that has turned its face against the juvenile death penalty. Roper reversed a decision of the court sixteen years earlier upholding such sentences. length: 1163 words 3.3 double spaced pages death penalty and the eighth amendment the expression an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth has taken on a whole new meaning. In 1967, executions in the united states were temporarily suspended to give the federal appellate courts time to decide whether or not the death penalty was unconstitutional. Then, in 1972, the united states supreme court ruled in the case of furman versus georgia that the death penalty violated the eight amendments. Excessive bail shall not be required, no excessive fines imposed, nor cruel or unusual punishments inflicted. After the supreme court made this ruling, states reviewed their death penalty laws.

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In 1976, in the case of gregg versus georgia the supreme court ruled state death penalty laws were not unconstitutional. Presently in the united states the death penalty can only be used as punishment for intentional killing. Still, the death penalty violates the eighth amendment and should be outlawed in the united states. Currently in the united states there are five methods used for executing criminals: the electric chair. Gas chamber, lethal injection, hanging, and firing squad, each of them equally cruel and unusual in there own ways. When a person is sentenced to death by electrocution he strapped to a chair and electrodes are attached to his head and leg. The amount of voltage is raised and lowered a few times and death is supposed to occur within three minutes.

Three whole minutes with electricity flowing through someone's body, while his flesh burns. Three minutes may not seem like a very long time, but to someone who is waiting for his body to die, three minutes can feel like an three minutes is the approximate time it takes for a person to die if everything goes right, but in some cases it takes longer for people to die. In 1990, jesse tafero, a prisoner in florida, remained conscious for four minutes while witnesses watched ashes fall from his head.

In georgia in 1984, it took nearly twenty minutes for alpha otis stephens to die. At 1 am on december 12, he was shocked with electricity for two minutes, and his body still showed signs of life. The doctors had to wait six minutes to examine his body because it was too hot to touch.

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When a person is executed in the gas chamber he is strapped to a chair in an airtight room. These gas chambers are similar to the ones used by the nazi's in world war ii concentration camps. Fifty years ago, america was quick to condemn the germans for persecuting jew's, but, today, in 1996 americans execute their own people the exact same way. The person being executed is injected with a deadly dose of barbiturates through an intravenous tube in his arm.

This method is considered the most humane and efficient way of execution, but a federal judge noted that a slight error in dosage or administration can leave a prisoner conscious but paralyzed while dying, a sentient witness of his or her own asphyxiation. In one case it took 24 minutes to kill a criminal because the tube leaked and sprayed the chemicals towards the witnesses. In 1989, too weak a dosage of drugs caused stephen mccoy to choke and heave for several minutes before he died.

Hanging used to be the most common way to execute a person, but now it is only used in delaware, montana, new hampshire, and washington. Hanging is not a very useful way of execution, because if the drop is too short the person being executed dies through gradual strangulation and if the rope is too long the person's head is ripped off. There is no punishment more unusual then having your head ripped off, so the death penalty is in direct violation with when someone is executed by a firing squad he is strapped to a chair and has a target attached to his chest. Having people being paid to shot at a target on someone's chest is not only cruel, but humiliating for the person being executed. The death penalty by itself is a cruel and unusual punishment, but the treatment of prisoners before being executed is also cruel and unusual. He attempted to commit suicide, but authorities revived him, then executed him hours later. In illinois last november, the state gave death row inmate john del vecchio two heart surgeries and then executed him in december.