ABSTRACT
Just as the Second Amendment has posed a challenge for interpretation and application, so too has the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.” The interpretation of exactly what is meant by “cruel and unusual punishment” has served as the basis for the ongoing debate over the issue of capital punishment. At issue with capital punishment is the question of whether the state has the constitutional right (and also the moral right) to take the life of an individual who has been convicted in a court of law of a capital crime (such as various categories or legally defined degrees of murder). Because the writers of the Bill of Rights did not specify what types of punishments were appropriate in capital cases, or for that manner in any criminal case, it is the responsibility of the courts to infer meaning to the words cruel and unusual punishment.
