Assignment task:
In your responses to your peers, consider how they used the Constitution to defend their position. Do you agree with their interpretation of this document? Why or why not? How does their interpretation differ from yours? Which of their points or arguments make the most sense to you, even if you still disagree with their overall position? Need Assignment Help?
Daniel post:
I agree with Justice Stephen Breyer's position that capital punishment now constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment prohibits punishments that are excessive, arbitrary, or incompatible with evolving standards of decency, and the modern application of the death penalty increasingly violates all three. While the Constitution once permitted capital punishment, the way it is carried out today raises serious constitutional and ethical concerns.
When examined through the four purposes of punishment-deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation-the death penalty falls short. First, deterrence is often cited as a justification, but research has consistently failed to show that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than life imprisonment. If capital punishment does not clearly reduce violent crime, its extreme nature becomes harder to justify under constitutional standards. Incapacitation can be achieved without execution, as life without parole permanently removes dangerous individuals from society without risking irreversible error.
Retribution is the purpose most closely aligned with capital punishment, as it reflects society's desire for proportional punishment. However, the arbitrary application of the death penalty-affected by race, geography, quality of legal representation, and economic status-undermines the idea of fair and proportional justice. A punishment that is applied inconsistently cannot be considered just. Rehabilitation, the final purpose, is entirely incompatible with capital punishment, as execution eliminates any possibility for reform, redemption, or correction of wrongful convictions.
Justice Breyer's dissent highlights how wrongful convictions, long delays, and painful execution methods have become defining features of the death penalty's application (Death Penalty Information Center, 2015). These realities conflict with evolving standards of decency and suggest that capital punishment no longer aligns with constitutional principles. Taken together, the lack of deterrence, availability of less severe alternatives, arbitrariness in application, and irreversible consequences support the conclusion that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.
Danyel post:
I gotta disagree with Justice Breyer here. The Eighth Amendment says no "cruel and unusual punishments," but I don't think the death penalty fits that when it's used the right way with solid rules in place. Back when they wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, pretty much every state had the death penalty for serious crimes it was normal. The Supreme Court has said the same thing over the years (like in that Gregg v. Georgia case from the 70s) it's not automatically cruel or unusual if there are good safeguards so it's not random or unfair.
Breaking it down with the four main reasons we punish people:
Retribution is the big one for me. Some crimes are so messed up like torturing and killing kids, or mass shootings that death just feels like the only thing that actually matches how bad it was. It's not straight-up revenge, it's society saying this was beyond awful and deserves the harshest response. Life without parole is brutal, but for the absolute worst cases, it doesn't always feel like enough justice for the victims.
Incapacitation - Death locks it down 100%. No chance the person ever escapes prison or hurts a guard or another inmate. Life without parole is pretty close, but there's always that super small risk. For the most dangerous people, execution makes sure it's over for good.
Deterrence - Yeah, the stats are all over the place lots of studies say it doesn't stop murders any better than life in prison. But I still think it might make at least some cold-blooded killers pause and think twice if they know death could be on the table. Even a tiny edge is worth keeping if it saves even one life.
Rehabilitation - Honestly, for the tiny number of people who actually get death row, rehab isn't really on the table anyway. These are usually the cases where everyone agrees the person isn't coming back from what they did.
So yeah, I think when states do it carefully and only for the really evil stuff, the death penalty isn't cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment. It's tough as hell, but that's kinda the point for the worst crimes. Life without parole handles most things, but I believe we should keep death as an option for the ones who truly deserve it.