Fear of Crime

Once the essential language of the U.S. Constitution was written and adopted, many of the concerns of the individual states were addressed in the first ten articles of Amendments, also known as the Bill of Rights. These ten articles were influenced largely by George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, with much of the final language based on Mason's "Declaration of Rights" for Virginia's Constitution of 1776. There were originally twelve, but two were eliminated as the final ten were adopted in 1791. Article VIII states: "Excessive bail

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in 1791 when the amendment was ratified. Many believe that what the Founding Fathers intended is all that matters, and thus what they would have thought was cruel and unusual is all that should be considered. Others feel that society has advanced and may have a different idea of what is cruel and unusual, and they also believe that this new conception should be what determines the matter. The issue is raised in death penalty cases because such cases so clearly involve what might be considered cruel--the taking of a life--but some death penalty cases raise the issue more starkly than others. It has been raised recently in several cases involving youths under 18 years of age who have been convicted of murder and who have received the death penalty, and it is asked whether it is cruel and unusual to inflict the death penalty on those who could be classified as children, presumed not to have the full adult capability of telling right from wrong. The Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that the death penalty was not cruel and unusual so long as it was administered fairly, but it was not then asked whether the punishment could be applied to those who were under 18 at the time they committed their crimes. In 1987 the Court overturned
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Approximate Word count = 2042
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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