Insanity_And_The_Eighth_Amendment

Insanity And The Eighth Amendment Insanity And The Eighth Amendment Our constitution lays out certain rights and privileges that are to protect the citizens of our nation. Over the years, the Supreme Court has handed down rulings on specific cases that determine how our constitution is read and adhered too. Many times, there are people on both sides of the issue at hand. One such issue for me is the problem with Criminal Insanity. People who argue, and receive a “Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity”, (NGRI), are often shipped away to a mental facility to spend long sentences. To me, this is a violation of ones Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment. Eighth Amendment The Eighth Amendment of the constitution states that persons are protected from cruel and unusual punishment from the government. This means that you cannot be put to death simply from stealing a piece of bubble gum. It was intended to balance the sentences to match the severity of the crime for which a person is being tried. Over the years, as our society has changed, the notion of what is just and fair for a particular crime has changed. Most of this insanity, defense, mental, person, defendant, crime, time, ngri, cases, been, states, percent, people, committed, years, system, should, reason, period, one, mentally, judge, guilty, eighth, amendment, successfully, successful, study, plea, over, less, insane, ill, hospital, found