Cruel & Unusual Punishment Standard

This paper will briefly discuss the standard for cruel and unusual punishment established in 1958 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Trop v. Dulles (356 U.S. 86). It will then analyze this standard as it relates to criminal punishment in the United States and discuss why the Court's ruling in Trop was expressed in broader terms than any other Eighth Amendment case since then.

Trop v. Dulles involved a plaintiff who had been convicted of desertion from the U.S. Army during World War Two and had been dishonorably discharged. In 1952, he sued the government when he was denied a passport on the grounds that he had lost his citizenship under the provisions of the Nationality Act. The lower courts ruled that the provisions at issue in the case were proper and effective, and that the plaintiff's conviction for desertion during wartime had cost him his citizenship. The Supreme Court, however, reversed, ruling that º 401(g) of the Nationality Act was unconstitutional since it was punitive in nature and violated the Eighth Amendment's protection against "cruel and unusual punishment."

The Nationality Act was not a criminal statute; instead, it delineated the boundaries of citizenship and provided grounds for deportation. The government argued that º 401(g) was a regulatory provision authorized by the war power of the Congress, and not a penal law (Trop, pp. 97). However, Chief Justice Earl Warren, writing for the majority, ru

. . .
dignity" principle is that certain punishments are so inherently degrading to both the convicted person and the state that they violate human dignity (James, 1984, p. 876). This idea ran through the part of the opinion examining the punishment of denationalization in light of the Eighth Amendment; in the end, the Court felt that denationalization was a punishment worse than death. Of course, such reasoning was necessary, considering that death was an accepted penalty for desertion during wartime and that the Court had no objection to such an arrangement. What was so cruel and unusual about denationalization was that it involved the "total destruction of the individual's status in organized society." Denationalization destroys an individual's status in both the national and international communities; a stateless person need not be granted any rights by any country. A stateless person is subject to ever-increasing fear and distress, as he is at the mercy and whim of any discriminations and proscriptions directed at him, including banishment. Because it destroys the political existence developed over centuries, the Court considered denationalization more primitive than physical torture (pp.101-102). The standard articulated
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Eighth Amendment, Amendment Court, Amendment Trop, Nationality Act, Philippines Turkey, Earl Warren, Trop Dulles, Robinson California, Trop Court, Court Trop, eighth amendment, cruel unusual, supreme court, º 401g, standards decency, cruel unusual punishment, trop dulles, unusual punishment, punishment eighth amendment, court trop, death penalty, desertion wartime, evolving standards decency, supreme court trop, conviction desertion wartime,
Approximate Word count = 1350
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Cruel & Unusual Punishment Standard