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Back on the Chain Gang: Why the Eight Amendment and the History of Slavery Proscribe the Resurgence of Chain Gangs |
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Tessa M. Gorman |
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| Historically, American chain gangs were instruments with which to terrorize, control, and humiliate African Americans. In 1995, the chain gang reappeared as a method of punishment in Alabama prisons, thus resurrecting a powerful and shameful symbol of this country's legacy of racial injustice and institutionalized racial oppression. This Comment argues that chain gangs violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments." The Eighth Amendment proscribes punishments that do not comport with "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." The author suggests that a punishment's historical connotation and effect on individual dignity should be essential components of an Eighth Amendment analysis. Arguing that the chain gang's historical connection to slavery is inescapable, and that the punishment represents an affront to human dignity, she concludes that chain gangs offend the Eighth Amendment's mandate and should be condemned as a form of cruel and unusual punishment. | |
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Copyright
© 1997 by California Law Review, Inc. |
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