Living Constitution Blog 10: Amenedment 8

Source: News Article
Title: Defining ‘Cruel and Unusual’ When Offender Is 13
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/us/03bar.html

Constitutional Connection:
Amendment 8, No Cruel or 'Unusual Punishment can be inflicted'

Explanation:

          This articles talks about whether or not a case was constitutional or not. In the case a 13 year old boy named Joe Sullivan, raped this 72 year old woman. The ruling of the case was life in prison with out any chance of parole. His case was taken to the Supreme Court because a lawyer felt that his ruling was violating the 8th amendment. He felt the idea of no parole was an act of cruel and unusual punishment. There was a lot of debate on whether or not this was true. In the end the Supreme Court decided that Mr. Sullivan should be allowed parole and for the future all children under 18 can't be put to the death penalty.

          This article relates to the constitution because it has relation to the 8th amendment. It relates to the 8th amendment because it questions whether or not a case is constitutional relating to this amendment. The 8th amendment talks about excessive bail and no cruel or unusual punishment. An example of how it is cruel or unusual punishment, is how  the Mr. Sullivan was sentenced to life with out parole. This is an example because as a person grows they can most likely mature so after a certain amount of years in jail, Mr. Sullivan could mature and be able to function in society.

        In my opinion the Supreme court ruled correctly. A person that is as young as 13 shouldn't be given the death penalty. I say this because just for the simple fact that it is a young age. Also many reasons to why the child committed the crime is because of peer pressure and not because of personal problems. If a child is given the death penalty you aren't giving them the opportunity to prove themselves that they can do right. If they are left in jail until they die, they will never be able to see if they could improve their lives and start a new. If a child did not commit a murder, then they should not get the death penalty. In this case the defendant raped somebody, but the victim was not dead so their is no reason for the death penalty. Yes, he should serve 10- 20 years in jail but not life.