Question

Question: how do you explain the country’s continued support of capital punishment with the existence of the 8th Amendment? How is the death penalty not cruel and unusual punishment? Do you believe the death penalty serves the purpose(s) for which it was designed?

Answer 1

The 8th amendment says about fair and just punishment that should not be cruel. But, it does not discourage the capital punishment, because it is awarded from the rarest of rare crimes and its continued support lies in the message conveyed by the capital punishment that it still can be awarded as fair and just punishment to the individuals if they commit such as the rarest of rare and heinous crime. Hence 8th amendment does not ban capital punishment, rather it just ensures that punishment should be fair and it can be capital punishment as well. In 2019 only, already 22 individuals have been executed in 2019 using capital punishment.

Death penalty is not cruel and unusual, in a way that it is awarded to those who have committed such as crime that created loss of lives by many people, sedition and terror attacks. So, when compared with the acts of the culprits, death penalty seems to be fair.  

Death penalty has served the purpose in a limited way, that still gives warning to the criminal that they forego the path of crime and join the mainstream of society. But, crime is already increasing and it is not contained using death penalty. So, this is not a method that can be used to serve the purpose of reducing crime. Rather, it is the awareness level at community that can help people not to trade the path of anti-social activities.