Retired Supreme Court judge John Paul Stevens is now making explicit his belief the death penalty should be abolished. In his new book Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution, he writes that the Eighth Amendment should be amended to read: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments such as the death penalty inflicted.” Stevens words run contrary to his own behavior on the Supreme Court, in which he upheld the capital punishment sentences for hundreds of inmates and also supported looser lethal injection standards.
