Amendment 8: Protection against cruel and unusual punishment, no excessive bail imposed

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

As most, this amendment protects the citizens from tyranny by preventing the government from making unjust consequences. It eliminates the extreme from happening to you and relegates it to a just punishment for whatever it is you are being prosecuted for. Things like being tarred and feathered, back in early times, to detrimental fines as we find in today's world, are prevented. The punishment must be fair and decided within means. Without something like this amendment protecting us, the punishments and fines could have no end.

This video covers the issue of capital punishment and how it is affected by this amendment. These are cases of death penalty being argued as a cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty is reserved for very serious cases and has been used, but this video really makes you think about determining if it is in fact considered under the "excessive" category.

Here the similar situation of death row is discussed but the main issue discussed is a life of imprisonment. Comparing the two is actually very hard to debate for me personally because the end result is similar and it could be argued that a life in prison is actually worse. This does not fall under cruel and unusual currently but maybe it should be, or the option to decide to end their life as opposed to serving their life sentence.