Punishment

Question 1

Robison v. California

1962

Answer 1

Ban against cruel and unusual punishments (8th Amendment)

Question 2

Furman v. Georgia (1972)

Answer 2

Held the death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment and was a violation of the 8th and 14th Amendments.

Question 3

Gregg v. Georgia (1976)

Answer 3

The punishment of death for the crime of murder does not, under all circumstances, violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Question 4

McCleskey v. Kemp (1987)

Answer 4

Upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty against charges that it violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment because minority defendants were more likely to receive the death penalty than were White defendants.

Question 5

Coker v. Georgia (1977)

Answer 5

Held that the sentence of death for the crime of rape is grossly disproportionate and excessive punishment and is forbidden by the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment.

Question 6

Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008)

Answer 6

Held that the Eighth Amendment bars Louisiana from imposing the death penalty for rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim’s death.

Question 7

Penry v. Lynaugh (1989)

Answer 7

Held that executing the mentally retarded was not cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

Question 8

Atkins v. Virginia (2002)

Answer 8

Held that executions of mentally retarded criminals are cruel and unusual punishments prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.

Reversed Penry v. Lynaugh

Question 9

Stanford v. Kentucky (1989)

Answer 9

Held that the imposition of capital punishment on an individual for a crime committed at 16 years of age and older does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

Question 10

Roper v. Simmons (2005)

Answer 10

Ruled that it is unconstitutional to impose death penalty for a crime committed by a child under the age of 18, therefore, the death sentence imposed on a minor is a violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Overturned Stanford v. Kentucky

Question 11

Graham v. Florida (2010)

Answer 11

Held that the Eighth Amendment bars juvenile offenders from receiving life sentences without parole for nonhomicide crimes.

Question 12

Herrera v. Collins (1993)

Answer 12

Held that neither the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment nor the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause bars the execution of a person convicted in a fair trial who later discovers new evidence to support his claim of innocence.

Question 13

Base v. Rees (2008)

Answer 13

Held that the most common method of execution by the lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment.

Question 14

Glossip v. Gross (2015)

Answer 14

Held that lethal injections using midazolam do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Question 15

Rummel v. Estelle (1980)

Answer 15

Held that the life sentence imposed by Texas law did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Question 16

Ewing v. California (2003)

Answer 16

Upheld a sentence imposed under California’s three strikes law against a challenge that it constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.