Page 248 - Beers With Our Founding Fathers

Beers with our Founding Fathers

was cruel and unusual and more reflective of centuries past than the

modern era the colonists found themselves.
Similar to bail, fines were a form of oppression and political

underhandedness. In many crimes, a person – particularly of the
upper class – could pay a fine to avoid any incarceration. For those

that could not afford the fine, and which many commoners could
not, it would be so excessive as to force incarceration in the

alternative. Consequently, such incarceration would be so excessive
as to create a significant financial hardship on the family, even for

lesser crimes, and was also excessive punishment. In the judicial
system corrupt in favor of the crown and prosecutors, the fines

would be so excessive as to be unpayable and forced incarceration
until the equivalent paid. For the colonists, it was not uncommon

for fines and punishment of the same crime to be imposed at a
significantly greater multiple over their non-colonial counterparts.

As the colonies became more divided, the issues addressed in these
Fourth through Eighth Amendments would be treated much

differently between the colonial revolutionaries and loyalists to
England.

Although fines have historically been a form of punishment that
could be imposed as a criminal penalty (as well as civil), punishment

was specific to incarceration, hard labor, even the infamous
drawing-and-quartering, beheading and other forms of the death

penalty, and no appeals. Pre-dating the Magna Carta, the crown

could impose any penalty deemed appropriate for their level of
offense and crime – from political to personal – and noting that the
judicial system through the colonial era was not fair or impartial.

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