Others say they were assaulted by officers themselves. The Eighth Amendment, which bars "cruel and unusual punishments," was intended by the founders as a bulwark against prisoner abuse.

Senate Bill 375 was signed into law by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders after passing the legislature on April 10, making Arkansas one of the few states in the nation with a law allowing the death ...

Together, they changed the legal landscape of the Eighth Amendment — the foundational constitutional protection against "cruel and unusual punishments." Heavy criticism soon followed — from ...

How a Clinton-era law, the PLRA, hollowed out the Eighth Amendment. Nearly three years into Bill Clinton's first term as president, US senators took to the floor to tackle an urgent concern.

Johnson that a city does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments when it enforces against homeless individuals its ordinance that bars encampments on public property.

Four years ago, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled (in Martin v. City of Boise) that “the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment bars a city from prosecuting people criminally ...

The second category, which arguably reflects the understanding that prevailed in America before the drafting of the Eighth Amendment, would prohibit torturous punishments such as pillorying ...

the Supreme Court ruled that inmates on death row could make last-minute claims that the chemicals in lethal injections are too painful and violate the Constitution's Eighth Amendment.

Arkansas has enacted a new law under Senate Bill 375, signed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, that permits the death ...