USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Majority Opinion. On March 1, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid the execution of offenders who were younger than age 18 when the crime occurred.

Detailed explanation-2: -Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, but the Eighth Amendment does shape certain procedural aspects regarding when a jury may use the death penalty and how it must be carried out.

Detailed explanation-4: -In 1972, the Supreme Court declared that under then-existing laws “the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty… constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.” (Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238).

Detailed explanation-5: -One justice concluded that because death is a penalty inflicted on the poor and hapless defendant but not the affluent and socially better defendant, it violates the implicit requirement of equality of treatment found within the Eighth Amendment.