Amendment+8W6

8W6

The Eighth Amendment =**By: Lauren Casatelli** **&**= =**Michael Macaluso**=

=** Focus Questions: ** What issues prompted the creation of your amendment? What impact did your amendment have on society at that time? =

Excessive bail is not required, neither are excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment cannot be inflicted on a person.
==

=Questions:=

A. Excessive bail is an amount of money assigned to the prisoner for them to get out of prison. They need to pay that amount of money or they don't go out of prison. It has to be a reasonable amount of money that connects to the crime he/she has done, if not the court has to change the amount of money to a reasonable amount. A. Judges normally decide the cost of bail once he/she has entered court after they were arrested. Judges can raise or lower the cost of bail depending on how the court goes and what that person actually did. A. Judges decide the punishment but juries persuade the judge on what the punishment should be based on why the person is there and what they did. A. The punishment depends on the crime because whatever the person does you can't just give a random amount it has to be fair and based on the crime you do. A. Excessive fines are large(excessive) amounts of money that you receive if you do something wrong. It is a payment for your punishment. A. The kinds of punishments that are acceptable are the ones that are fair for the crime that person did. If you shoplifted then the proper punishment would be paying for the item and go to jail for a couple of days, a unacceptable punishment would be paying for the item for more then what it already cost and go to jail for a couple of years. A. Excessive bail does require going to court because the judge has to give you the amount of the money the bail is for the prisoners to pay. A. The Supreme Court decides how much the fines cost depending on the crime and it has to be an acceptable amount of money. A. There isn't really an average bail, bail depends on what the crime is and everyone does a different crime and it differs depending on the crime. A. Everything differs on what the crime is. If you shop lift your punishment isn't that long maybe a couple of days but no longer than a week. Robbing a bank is about 2 to 3 years. Killing someone is around 20 to 23 years and for someone to bail out of that it is going to be around fifty thousand dollars.
 * What is excessive Bail?
 * Who decides the cost of the bail?
 * Who decides what the punishment will be?
 * Does the punishment depend on the crime?
 * What are excessive fines?
 * What kinds of punishments are acceptable?
 * Does excessive bail require going to court?
 * Who decides how much excessive fines cost?
 * How much is an average bail?
 * How long is an average punishment?

= What issues prompted the creation of your amendment? = ===The eighth amendment was part of the Bill of Rights in 1791, it was added by the case in England by Titus Oates. He was tried by the court system many times of perjury. This led to the executions of many people who Oates had wrongly accused of grave crimes. The punishments of Oates involved ordinary penalties which were imposed in a brutal and excessive manner of Titus Oates.=== (Michael Macaluso) = What impact did your amendment have on society at that time? = ===The eighth amendment had an effect on society by the Supreme Court outlawing public dissecting, burning a person or victim alive, drawing and quartering, regardless of the crime they did. The Supreme Court outlawed the execution of any individual under the age of eighteen or any individual who is mentally handicapped. The Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to fine an individual excessively based on their economic or financial standing. They also were the ones who said excessive bail was not allowed, however the eighth amendment also states that bail may be denied if the charges are grave and serious enough to terminate the option.=== (Lauren Casatelli)
 * Focus Question 1:**
 * Focus Question 2:**

=**Current Events:**=

Michael Macaluso 5-17-16 __Current Event__

Article: [|__http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/us/politics/obama-commutes-sentences-of-58-nonviolent-offenders.htm__]

This article informs readers about President Obama Commuting the sentences of 58 nonviolent drug offenders. Most of the sentences of the offenders were for life, but Obama did not think that that was necessary. He states, “ It just doesn’t make sense to require a nonviolent drug offender to serve 20 years, or in some cases, life, in prison.” The punishment is very unusual for a small crime. A lot of prisoners were serving decades because of the suppression on drug-related crimes in the 1980’s and 90’s. Their sentences are going reduced due to Obama’s actions. They will still serve jail time but not as long as they were originally sentenced to.

Sometimes punishments are very cruel and unusual like this event. The punishment for a small drug offense crime is a life sentence and that goes against the 8th amendment. The 8th amendment which prohibits, cruel and unusual punishment of crimes. Some people do not acknowledge or recognize the amendment and give harsh punishments anyway. This amendment is extremely relevant today according to the article. If President Obama did not remember this amendment, many nonviolent offenders could still be in jail for life. That is why we need this amendment today, because of a silly 80’s and 90’s law. The punishment must always fit the crime. Or else society could crash and burn.