Bill of Rights - Eighth Amendment Rights

What are our Eighth  Amendment rights?

Here is the exact wording of the Eighth Amendment:

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

OK let’s look at the Eighth Amendment restrictions over to see how it protects us as US Citizens.

It restricts courts from setting excessive bails or fines when not warranted according to the severity of the crime and flight risk of the accused.  Then it goes on to restrict the imposition of cruel and unusual punishments on the accused.  A judge cannot sentence a 16 year old to a chain gang prison for shoplifting.  Or the sentence cannot include something like, walking through knee deep snow in shorts for 30 minutes every morning before breakfast.  Or flogging a prisoner every morning before breakfast.  All of these would fall under cruel and unusual punishments.

Why did our founding fathers think it was necessary to put the Eighth Amendment in place?

Remember that many counties in Europe during this period put people in prison for long periods of time when it was not warranted.  A good example of this were the debtor prisons.  If someone could not pay a tax or any other dept, they could be imprisoned until the debt is paid.  The ironic thing about this is that many stayed in prison for years with no way to earn the money to pay the dept while in prison.

Our found fathers also saw the mistreatment of prisoners in Europe.  This is one of the reasons they left their homelands and came to America in search of a better way of life without the fear of being treated terribly by the government.  The long arm of the King of England reach over the ocean though and the mistreatment found it’s way to our shores.  This is one of the reasons for the Revolutionary War.  So they put the Eighth Amendment in the Bill of Rights to ensure our citizens were protected from the restrictions listed in the Eighth Amendment.