Comment by sowbug
5 hours ago
In the US, the 8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, which courts have interpreted again and again as requiring that punishment be proportionate to the conduct. Weems v. United States (1910), for example, struck down a 15-year hard-labor sentence for a man who engaged in criminal fraud.
Do you think Alex Pretti or Renee Good deserved 15 years of hard labor for disobeying ICE? How about just five years? Because what actually happened was they were executed on the spot.
There is no FAFO exception in the US Constitution.
Cruel and unusual punishment is about sentencing, after a trial. These folks didn't go through a trial.
No, I don't think either person deserved fifteen years of hard labor, or five years.
What actually happened is not that they were executed on the spot, no.
It's not a particularly strong argument that these agents didn't violate the 8th amendment because they violated the 6th amendment right to trial.