Eighth Amendment Quotes

Arizona presents no specific reason for excepting capital defendants from the constitutional protections extended to defendants generally, and none is readily apparent.

There are a lot of people who want to retain the Eighth Amendment - I don't agree with that view myself - there are others who want to remove it, but when you ask them what that means, they aren't able to tell you.

No matter what your views are on abortion, the Eighth Amendment in the Constitution is a very cruel, cruel law which benefits no one.

And what I would say now is, yes, if a state enacted a law permitting flogging, it is immensely stupid, but it is not unconstitutional. A lot of stuff that's stupid is not unconstitutional.

These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual.

We need clarification regarding the death penalty. It's different in many states... It's a bit different throughout the country, so I look forward to Judge Gorsuch being on the court, Justice Gorsuch being on the court, and bringing some clarification to those issues.

It's absolutely clear that whatever cruel and unusual punishments may - may mean with regard to future things, such as death by injection or the electric chair, it's clear that - that the death penalty, in and of itself, is not considered cruel and unusual punishment.

Does the Constitution permit the execution of an innocent person?

By requiring that an execution be relatively painless, we necessarily protect the inmate from enduring any punishment that is comparable to the suffering inflicted on his victim. This trend, while appropriate and required by the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, actually undermines the very premise on which public approval of the retribution rationale is based.

Repealing the Eighth Amendment is about women who don't want to be pregnant. It's not about a certain type of woman, a certain age of woman - we all known sisters and mothers who have chosen to go on with a pregnancy and those who haven't.

The principle inherent in the clause that prohibits pointless infliction of excessive punishment when less severe punishment can adequately achieve the same purposes invalidates the punishment.