Explain the history of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

What will be an ideal response?


The wording of the Eighth Amendment as we know it today was originally drawn from a provision in the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, which was, in turn, drawn from the English Bill of Rights of 1689. The English Parliament passed this list of rights guaranteed to its citizens in an attempt to prevent misuse of punishment by the king. However, even this can be traced further back to the Magna Carta of 1215, in which the noblemen forced King John to agree that punishments would not be excessive. The Eighth Amendment found in the American Bill or Rights was added, along with the rest of the document, to the Constitution in 1791 in response to concerns that the new constitution of the nation did not provide sufficient protections for accused criminals.

Legal Studies & Paralegal

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What will be an ideal response?

Legal Studies & Paralegal