The Death Penalty and the Fifth Amendment

17 Pages Posted: 29 Oct 2015 Last revised: 2 Sep 2016

Date Written: August 30, 2016

Abstract

Can the Supreme Court find unconstitutional something that the text of the Constitution “contemplates”? If the Bill of Rights mentions a punishment, does that make it a “permissible legislative choice” immune to independent constitutional challenges?

Recent developments have given new hope to those seeking constitutional abolition of the death penalty. But some supporters of the death penalty continue to argue, as they have since Furman v. Georgia, that the death penalty must be constitutional because the Fifth Amendment explicitly contemplates it. The appeal of this argument is obvious, but its strength is largely superficial, and is also mostly irrelevant to the claims being made against the constitutionality of capital punishment. At most, the references to the death penalty in the Fifth Amendment may reflect a founding era assumption that it was constitutionally permissible at that time. But they do not amount to a constitutional authorization; if capital punishment violates another constitutional provision, it is unconstitutional. And once that point is conceded, the Fifth Amendment Argument does very little work. There might be good arguments for the constitutionality of the death penalty, but the Fifth Amendment is not among them.

Keywords: death penalty, capital punishment, Fifth Amendment, Eighth Amendment, cruel and unusual, originalism, textualism

Suggested Citation

Blocher, Joseph, The Death Penalty and the Fifth Amendment (August 30, 2016). Northwestern University Law Review, Vol. 111, 2016, Duke Law School Public Law & Legal Theory Series No. 2015-52, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2682657 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2682657

Joseph Blocher (Contact Author)

Duke University School of Law ( email )

210 Science Drive
Box 90362
Durham, NC 27708
United States

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