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With two high-profile death penalty cases being decided in the Chicago area this month, Illinois is once again front and center in the debate about capital punishment.  Here are 8 things you should know about the 8th Amendment.

1. U.S. Supreme Court
Although the 8th Amendment’s Constitution prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments,” executions were carried out unfettered until 1972 when the U.S. Supreme Court halted the practice unless courts took special precautions in issuing death sentences.

The Court has allowed murderers to be sentenced to death since 1976 with a few exceptions.  In the last five years, the Court has prohibited carrying out the death penalty against the mentally retarded and those who committed a murder as a juvenile.

2.Foreign Precedent
While opposing the death penalty in recent cases, Justice Stephen Breyer has cited foreign legal precedent to show how unusual the death penalty is in the world.  This has ignited a debate within legal circles about the role of foreign law in American jurisprudence.

 3. States
The U.S. Federal Government and U.S. Military can impose the death sentence, but most executions are carried out by the 37 states who re-adopted capital punishment starting in 1976.  Two of those states (New Jersey and New Mexico) have ended up abolishing the death penalty in the last three years.

4. Texas
Texas has carried out the most death sentences since 1976 with the execution of 441 convicts. But the imposition of the death penalty has slowed across the nation in recent years.  Texas executed 18 people on death row in 2008 as compared with 40 in 2000.

5.  Illinois
Illinois renewed its capital punishment law in 1977.  John Wayne Gacy was the first person executed under this law in 1980 for the murder of 33 young men and boys.  Illinois put 12 men to death under this law.

6.  Illinois Moratorium
Illinois has not carried out a death sentence since 1999. Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium on the death penalty after the exoneration of more than a dozen men awaiting the death penalty.  Before he left office, Ryan commuted the sentence of 156 death row inmates who were sentenced to life in prison without parole.     

7.  Illinois Death Row since 2003
Since Ryan left office, 16 men have been sentenced to die in Illinois.

8.  Jury Process
To be seated on a jury in a capital case, prospective jury members can not have blanket opposition to the death penalty. If a jury convicts in a capital offense, the law requires a completely separate sentencing hearing to take place. The jury must be unanimous in its decision to impose the death penalty.

In the case of the Brown’s Chicken murders in Palatine, both of the convicted murderers were spared the death penalty because just one or two jury member refused.    

A jury in DuPage County is currently deciding whether to sentence Brian Dugan to death after he pleaded guilty to the 1983 rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico.  Dugan is currently serving two life sentences for the murder of a 27-year old woman and the rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl.