Your Rights as a Citizen

Bill of Rights: Amendment VIII

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

Short and sweet, the Eighth Amendment protects the citizenry from overzealous, vindictive or mercenary government. While bail may be denied upon where the charges are sufficiently serious and "preventive" detention without bail is permitted. The Eighth Amendment requires that a defendant must receive reasonable bail in lieu of pretrial incarceration. Similarly, the amendment also prohibits excessive fines. The Supreme Court has held that the wealth of the defendant need not be considered when deciding the excessiveness of a fine; neither has the Court ever explicitly set a maximum figure for fines.

Lastly, the Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel or unusual punishment. The use of the word and (instead of or) has been held to have some significance. Cruel punishments are allowable as long as more than one court system applies the punishment. Similarly, unusual punishments are permitted so long as they are not cruel, although some lawyers would argue that any unusual punishment is cruel. So, for example, Pennsylvania's three strikes law has been interpreted not to conflict with this clause because even if they are unusual, they are not cruel.

The Eighth Amendment forbids some punishments entirely, and forbids some punishments that are excessive when compared to the crime.

Forbidden: Drawing and quartering, public dissecting, burning alive, disemboweling, torture, and karaoke (just kidding).

Forbidden when Excessive: A punishment is cruel and unusual if it is excessive.

"Hard and painful labor," shackling for the duration of incarceration, and permanent civil disabilities.

The death penalty was unconstitutionally excessive for rape of an adult female and, by implication, for any crime other than murder. However, some states are challenging this rule by enacting a death penalty statute for repeat child molesters.

Excessive incarceration e.g.-life without parole for cashing $100 on a closed account.

Allowed: Capital punishment, forfeiture.