2007-03-01 03:03:37 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
It does not.
The first concerns freedom of speech and the separation of Church and State. It has nothing to do with the Death penalty.
If anything, your question might concern the 8th amendment, that protecting against cruel and unusual punishments... but since the death penalty is so common, even 2 centuries after the constitution was written, that punishment is not "unusual", and given that legislators go to stupidly outrageous lengths to prescripe execution modes that can't be mistaken for torture, neither is it "cruel".
It fulfills neither criterion, and should fulfill both to be unconstitutional, so the 8th doesn't apply to the death penalty either.
2007-03-01 03:22:25 · answer #1 · answered by Svartalf 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Capital Punishment, or death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences.
The first amendment prohibits the federal legislature from making laws that establish a state religion or prefer a certain religion (the "Establishment Clause"), prohibit free exercise of religion (the "Free Exercise Clause"), infringe the freedom of speech, infringe the freedom of the press, limit the right to assemble peaceably, or limit the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
I do not believe that this in anyway violates the first amendment. Everyone in America knows that there are rules and there are laws. When you break those laws, you have punishment.
If you do something horrible enough to deserve capital punishment (i.e., taking someone's life: This something you can never give back)... I believe that you deserve to be punished, royally.
The Espionage Act of 1917 imposed a maximum sentence of twenty years for anyone who caused or attempted to cause "insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military or naval forces of the United States."
The Sedition Act of 1918 went even farther, criminalizing "disloyal," "scurrilous" or "abusive" language against the government.
I believe that we are lucky today compared to 89 years ago. I have read many rude comments from people pointed towards our government.
I don't believe Americans truly appreciate the freedom, the law, the constitution, or our rights here in the U.S.A. today.
2007-03-01 03:15:14 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It doesn't violate the First Amendment. Capital punishment and the First Amendment have nothing to do with each other.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
2007-03-01 03:09:07 · answer #3 · answered by C = JD 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It doesn't. Capital punishment existed at the time the Constitution was adopted, and the founders could have prohibited it had they chosen to do so. They didn't. See particularly Amendment V, which in three places notes the existence of capital punishment.
2007-03-01 03:08:20 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It doesn't, but it does violate the UN Charter on Human Rights.
2007-03-01 03:09:22 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
hi
2007-03-01 03:08:16 · answer #6 · answered by xuxa1214 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It doesn't.
2007-03-01 03:07:52 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It doesn't, that is why it is legal.
2007-03-01 03:06:05 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋