This episode of We the People is brought to you by The Great Courses Plus, a new video learning service featuring more than 5,000 lectures, taught by award-winning professors and experts.

To begin your free one month trial, go to the great courses plus.

Come slash people.

That's the great courses plus.

Come slash people.

I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to

We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.

The National Constitution

to disseminate

to disseminate information about the US Constitution

on a nonpartisan basis.

And today we take a close look at the Eighth Amendment

to the Constitution which dates quote

excessive bail shall not be required nor excessive fines imposed nor

cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

It's that last clause, the idea of cruel and unusual punishment,

that's the crux of this discussion.

Since 1976, when the Supreme Court held in Greg

versus Georgia that the death penalty does not violate the Eighth Amendment in all circumstances.

States have executed about 1,400 inmates,

and currently 31 states allow the death penalty, but a recent series of controversial

executions and exonerations as well as a important dissenting opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer have raised new questions about

...