The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, has three provisions. The cruel and unusual punishmentsclause restricts the severity of punishments that state and federal governments may impose upon persons who have beenconvicted of a criminal offense. The Excessive Fines Clause limits the amount that state and federal governments may finea person for a particular crime. The Excessive Bail Clause restricts judicial discretion in setting bail for the release ofpersons accused of a criminal activity during the period following their arrest but preceding their trial.
Courts are given wide latitude under the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment. Fines imposed by a trial courtjudge or magistrate will not be overturned on appeal unless the judge or magistrate abused his or her discretion in assessingthem (United States v. Hyppolite, 65 F.3d 1151 [4th Cir. 1995]). Under the "abuse-of-discretion" standard, appellate courtsmay overturn a fine that is Arbitrary, capricious, or "so grossly excessive as to amount to a deprivation of property withoutdue process of law" (Water-Pierce Oil Co. v. Texas, 212 U.S. 86, 111, 29 S. Ct. 220, 227, 53 L. Ed. 417 [1909]). Fines arerarely overturned on appeal for any of these reasons.
Trial court judges are given less latitude under the Excessive Bail Clause. Bail is the amount of money, property, or bondthat a defendant must pledge to the court as security for his or her appearance at trial. If the defendant meets bail or is ableto pay the amount set by the court, the defendant is entitled to recover the pledged amount at the conclusion of the criminalproceedings. However, if the defendant fails to appear as scheduled during the prosecution, then he or she forfeits theamount pledged and still faces further criminal penalties if convicted of the offense or offenses charged.
When fixing the amount of bail for a particular defendant, the court takes into consideration several factors: (1) theseriousness of the offense; (2) the Weight of Evidence against the accused; (3) the nature and extent of any ties, such asfamily or employment, that the accused has to the community where he or she will be prosecuted; (4) the accused's abilityto pay a given amount; and (5) the likelihood that the accused will flee the jurisdiction if released.
In applying these factors, courts usually attempt to set bail for a reasonable amount. Setting bail for an unreasonableamount would unnecessarily restrict the freedom of a person who only has been accused of wrongdoing; who is presumedinnocent until proven otherwise; and who is entitled to pursue a living and to support a family. At the same time, courts areaware that bail needs to be set sufficiently high to ensure that the defendant will return for trial. Defendants are less likely toflee the jurisdiction when they would forfeit large amounts of money as a result. Courts are also aware that they mustprotect communities from the harm presented by particularly dangerous defendants. In this regard, the U.S. Supreme Courthas permitted lower courts to deny bail for defendants who would create abnormally dangerous risks to the community ifreleased.
Appellate courts usually defer to lower courts' decisions when a criminal penalty is challenged under the Excessive Finesand Excessive Bail Clauses of the Eighth Amendment. They give much closer scrutiny to criminal penalties that arechallenged under the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause. State and federal governments are prohibited from inflictingcruel and unusual punishments on a defendant, no matter how heinous the crime committed. The prohibition against Cruel and Unusual Punishment by states derives from the doctrine of incorporation, through which selective liberties containedin the Bill of Rights have been applied to the states by the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the due process andEqual Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Eighth Amendment requires that every punishment imposed by the government be commensurate with the offensecommitted by the defendant. Punishments that are disproportionately harsh will be overturned on appeal. Examples ofpunishments that have been overturned for being unreasonable are two Georgia statutes that prescribed the death penaltyfor rape and Kidnapping (Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 97 S. Ct. 2861, 53 L. Ed. 2d 982 [1977]; Eberheart v. Georgia,433 U.S. 917, 97 S. Ct. 2994, 53 L. Ed. 2d 1104 [1977]).
