The U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment

Introduction

Chapter 1. Framing and early history

The Eighth Amendment's English and common law roots

Punishments context

The Eighth Amendment in the early United States

The Eighth lands on the Supreme Court's docket

Chapter 2. Interpretation and incorporation

Constitutional history and the backdrop of incorporation

The era of incorporation

Interpreting the Eighth Amendment

The beginning of a departure from evolutive decision-making?

Chapter 3. Excessive Bail

Incorporation of the Bail Clause

Bail before the Court

Chapter 4. Fines

History of the Fines Clause

1980s and 1990s review

Due process claims

Incorporating the Fines Clause

Chapter 5. The death penalty, from Furman to Gregg and beyond

Furman reaches the Court

The machinery of death, rebooted

Gregg's legacy

Chapter 6. Limits on capital categories: classes of offence

Non-homicidal rape

Felony murder

Non-homicidal child rape

Chapter 7. Limits on capital offenders

Youth in capital sentencing

Intellectually disabled offenders

Chapter 8. Execution protocols

Early death penalty methods

The lethal injection

21st Century innovation

Chapter 9. Equal application and racial bias

Chapter 10. Non-capital proscriptions

Life imprisonment and proportionality

Revisiting proportionality

Juveniles and non-capital proportionality

Chapter 11. Confinement conditions and inmate rights

Extending punishments adjudication to prison health and safety

Confinement conditions at the turn of the century: caveating the limitations

Mass incarceration on trial

Unconstitutional solitude?

Conclusion