The 8 th Amendment & the Death Penalty

1. The 8th Amendment & the Death Penalty

2. The 8th Amendment • Forbids: • Excessive Bail/Fines • Cruel & Unusual Punishment • The key is proportionality: • Bail/fines and other punishments must both be proportional to the crime

3. When is Punishment Cruel and Unusual? • Furman v. Georgia (1972) – Punishments are cruel and unusual when: • The severity of the punishment is degrading to human dignity; • The punishment is imposed arbitrarily (randomly); • The punishment is something that has been clearly rejected by society; • Patently unnecessary

4. Why the Death Penalty? • Deterrence – Serves as an example to the rest of society that harsh penalties come from committing crimes • Retribution – Punishment, paying a “blood debt” owed to society • Removal – Permanently removing dangerous and harmful people from our society

5. Death Penalty Facts and Statistics • The U.S. is one of the few industrialized nations in the world that still uses the death penalty • 86 countries, including all of Europe, have outlawed the death penalty • The number of executions each year in the U.S. has dropped by half since 1999, to 53 in 2006; • In 2006, according to a gallop poll, 48% of the country favored life in prison without parole while 47% supported the death penalty; • Since 1973, 130 people have been released from death row due to evidence of wrongful conviction; • According to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, in California the estimated annual cost of the current system is $137 million. The estimated annual cost of lifetime incarceration is $11.5 million.

6. The Death Penalty and Race • Since 1977, the overwhelming majority of death row defendants have been executed for killing white victims, although African-Americans make up half of all homicide victims. • In 1990, the U.S. General Accounting Office conducted a study which found "a pattern of evidence indicating racial disparities in the charging, sentencing, and imposition of the death penalty." • The report concluded that a defendant was several times more likely to be sentenced to death if the murder victim was white. • Other similar studies have concluded that, holding all other factors constant, the single most reliable predictor of whether someone will be sentenced to death is the race of the victim.

7. "I cannot support a system which, in its administration, has proven so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the state's taking of innocent life... Until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty, until I can be sure with moral certainty that no innocent man or woman is facing a lethal injection, no one will meet that fate." Ill. Gov. George Ryan, declaring a moratorium on the death penalty in 2003.

8. Causes of Wrongful Conviction • Eyewitness Misidentification • Unvalidated or Improper Forensic Science • False Confessions / Admissions • Government Misconduct • Informants or Snitches • Bad Lawyering

9. Wrongful Convictions