Reading Time: 3 minutes
Charlotte, NC — “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
The 8A protects US citizen’s rights against excessive bail and fines and cruel and unusual punishments as they relate to criminal cases. To put this in perspective, a US court cannot seek out a life sentence for petty crimes, like traffic violations or minor drug possession charges. It also means a million-dollar bail cannot be placed on someone who was previously living in poverty and is now in custody for minor charges. The 8A also protects against unusual punishments, such as a guillotine-style execution for offenders.
So if excessive bail is not permitted under the 8A, how may a judge deny bail in certain cases? As it turns out, the rules regarding bail fees, schedules, and denials are largely left up to the states.
For example, in a democratic controlled New York, you may murder someone in cold blood in the middle of Manhattan, post bail that day, and then sleep in your own bed that night. Conversely, in Illinois the laws are extremely strict: attorneys and state employees cannot post bail for a defendant, and bail bond agents are banned outright.
Unfortunately for the US, the democratic candidates for the White House, Mr. Biden, and Mrs. Harris both have historically erred to the side of excessive punishments whenever it suits their respective agendas. Kamala has a well-documented history as a prosecutor who sought excessive sentences for non-violent crimes, including marijuana-related crimes.
(function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:12728761204565862,size:[0, 0],id:”ld-3801-8645″});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src=”//cdn2.lockerdomecdn.com/_js/ajs.js”;j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,”script”,”ld-ajs”);
Mr. Biden’s 1994 Crime Bill was a major reason for the mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, especially, and disproportionately, men and women of color. Considering the DNC’s hard left turn to promote socialism and its recent support of candidates who are responsible for mass-incarceration, the US may suffer the same fate as Venezuela and Cuba if Biden and Harris find themselves in charge.
The traditional conservative position on the punishments for crime is black-and-white. If the law says X and it is broken, then the punishment is Y. However, the GOP has recently taken a more progressive approach to criminal justice. In 2018, President Trump passed the First Step Act.
The change in paradigm is one that views drug addiction as more of a mental health issue than a crime issue. Just this week, Trump pardoned former inmate Jon Ponder who had been working to help other inmates turn their lives around and prepare for the world outside of prison. While the GOP strongly supports law enforcement, it is also working to improve the system that it seeks to enforce.
On the other hand, progressives are predictably taking a radical hard-left position on all things related to criminal justice: defund the police, punish political dissenters, and empty out prisons for the purpose of creating more voters. For example, infamous woman-killer Scott Peterson has recently had has death sentence overturned by the liberal California Supreme Court. Even worse, radical Gov. Gavin Newsome has forbidden by decree any capital punishment during his tenure in office.
(function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13258402377734502,size:[0, 0],id:”ld-8818-2176″});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src=”//cdn2.lockerdomecdn.com/_js/ajs.js”;j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,”script”,”ld-ajs”);
America is now in a position where folks who defend their homes, like the McCloskey’s in St. Louis, are penalized while monsters like Scott Peterson will live out a long and healthy life behind bars on the tax-payers’ dime. Biden/Harris’ America looks like Chicago, Portland, and Detroit.
In their socialist utopia, a moderate view of “cruel and unusual punishment” is made obsolete by allowing murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals to walk freely among our families on the street to prevent them from getting COVID-19 in a communal setting. Excessive bail and fines are a non-issue if criminals are never arrested by defunded police departments.
You can contact Dillon through The Liberty Loft’s website. Be sure to subscribe to The Liberty Loft’s daily newsletter. If you enjoy our content, please consider donating to support The Liberty Loft so we can continue to deliver great content.
The post Founder Fridays, Pt. 8: Eighth Amendment appeared first on The Liberty Loft.
