does the death penalty violate eighth amendment

The most notable provision of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution is the prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishments.” Several arguments waged against the death penalty invoke the Eighth Amendment and claim that capital punishment is both cruel and unusual. However, the Supreme Court has heard several such cases and consistently upholds the constitutional legality of the death penalty on Eighth Amendment grounds, as with Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, (1976). The death penalty cannot be considered much if at all crueler than a life term in prison, and when the death penalty is proportional to a crime, it is by no means unusual. Therefore, the death penalty is not a violation of the Eighth Amendment, as long as it is restricted for use in response to capital crimes unequivocally committed by mentally capable adults.
The Supreme Court has also created limitations on the use of the death penalty, restricting its use and methods to ensure that it is administered judiciously. For one, the death penalty must be administered in a way that reduces or eliminates cruelty. Lethal injection has become the go-to method for administering the death penalty because this method has been shown to reduce suffering. The reason why lethal injection has become the de facto method of state sanctioned killing is that it involves three different drugs, the first of which is a general anasthetic called sodium pentothal, which is used commonly in surgery. The sodium pentothal renders the person unconscious, so that the paralytic drug like Pancuronium Bromide can stop the person’s respiratory functions from working, and a third drug, Potassium Chloride stops the beating of the heart.
Although a few states (Delaware, Washington, and New Hampshire) still allow hangings as a government issued form of capital punishment, lethal injection remains the primary method throughout all states that continue to use the death penalty. In fact, three states (Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah) still allow for firing squads, and 11 states including California have a gas chamber method. Nine states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia still use the electric chair. However, all states have lethal injection as the primary method.
The death penalty has generally been restricted to mentally capable adults, although for the majority of American history it was a punishment issued far more liberally. In 2002, the Courts ultimately ruled against the use of the death penalty on mentally retarded persons in Atkins v. Virginia. Justice Antonin Scalia issued a dissenting opinion in the case, claiming that it did not matter whether the person was mentally retarded or just plain “ugly,” the Eighth Amendment still needs to be applied equally to all citizens to ensure equal treatment under the law (cited on “Is the Death Penalty Unconstitutional?” n.d.). Likewise, the Courts have ruled that juveniles have “diminished culpability,” in Roper v. Simmons, and are therefore exempt from receiving the death penalty no matter how gruesome the acts they committed (“Is the Death Penalty Unconstitutional?” n.d.). Justice Scalia again issued a dissenting opinion in which he claimed that “the evidence is unusually clear that the Eighth Amendment was not originally understood to prohibit capital punishment for 16- and 17-year-old offenders,” (“Is the Death Penalty Unconstitutional?” n.d.). Still, it makes sense to pose some limitations on the death penalty given its finality.
The death penalty does not violate the Eighth Amendment, but it does help to have some limitations on when and how it is administered. Because the death penalty is restricted only for capital crimes (one cannot receive the death penalty even for rape), it passes the test of proportionality in which the punishment must fit the crime. Only a punishment that is in excess of the crime can be considered cruel or unusual. Similarly, the death penalty is administered in the most humane way possible when lethal injection is used, and is likely a kinder punishment than a life sentence in prison.



References

Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute (2017). Death penalty. Retrieved online: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/death_penalty
Death Penalty Information Center (2017). Methods of execution. Retrieved online: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/methods-execution
“Is the Death Penalty Unconstitutional?” (n.d.). ProCon. Retrieved online: https://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.background-resource.php?resourceID=001715#VIII