Eighth Amendment
Bans excessive bail
The Eighth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution prohibits excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishment.
Courts have interpreted cruel and unusual to bar torture, disproportionate sentences, and certain prison conditions.
The amendment applies to criminal sentencing and has been central to debates over the death penalty: The defense argued lethal injection violated the Eighth Amendment.
- Supreme CourtNation's top tribunal
- Bill of RightsInitial constitutional amendments guaranteeing freedoms
- cruel and unusualExcessively harsh and abnormal
- life sentenceImprisonment without release
- death penaltyLegal execution for crimes
Federalism · inmate rights · prison conditions · solitary confinement · lethal injection · electric chair
- ConstitutionBill of Rights, preamble, articles, U.S. Constitution, Article I
- defendant rightsright to counsel, Miranda rights, Miranda warning, presumption of innocence, right to silence
Eighth Amendmentcruel and unusual punishment
Excessive or barbaric penalty
torture · excessive punishment · excessive bail · excessive fines · corporal punishment
Eighth Amendmentpolice state
Regime controlling through surveillance
Eighth AmendmentGuantanamo Bay
US military installation, Cuba
Abu Ghraib · Spanish Inquisition · enhanced interrogation · extraordinary rendition
eight, eighth, amend, amendment, amends, amended, amending, amendable, amendatory