The Eighth Amendment

* Protection from excessive bail

- Used to imprison the poor if not illegal

- Why bail at all?

-> Courts can be slow

-> Don't want to imprison innocents any more than necessary

-> Need time and freedom to prepare one's defense

- "Excessive" is the key

-> Must take into account flight risk, danger, etc.

* Protection from excessive fines

- Can't fine $1,000,000 for stealing an apple

-> "Three strikes" laws an irony here

- Protects the poor

* Protection from cruel and unusual punishment"

- Keeps society humane

- Definition of cruel and unusual changes over time

- "Cruel"

-> Physical pain (exmp: )

-> Psychologically scaring (exmp: )

-> Robbing a person of their essential being (exmp: )

- "Unusual"

-> Not standard, regular

=> Unequally distributed effects and severity

=> Usually interpreted as voiding ethnic, gender, sexuality, etc. discrimination

+> African-American men and the death penalty the key issue

-> Bizarre punishments

=> Stops quirky judges

=> Limits disturbing innovation

- Death penalty (capital punishment) the key issue