The nonsense over being “humane” to hardened criminals is due to the continually-misinterpreted-by-liberal-judges “cruel and unusual punishment” clause of the Eighth Amendment. Anything that doesn’t preserve the body perfectly without any whiff of suffering has to suddenly be “cruel and unusual” of course.
They act as if the standard is “cruel or unusual”.
Community service for some crimes may be very unusual but are hardly cruel and the death penalty for crimes for which it has been appropriate since the founding of the country are not “unusual” no matter how cruel.
“Anything that doesn’t preserve the body perfectly without any whiff of suffering has to suddenly be “cruel and unusual” of course.”
If my memory serves me correctly, when Saddam was hung, they put a black cloth around his neck to prevent rope burns. It was so stupid.
“cruel and unusual punishment”
I have read that the original meaning was no death by slow torture such as burning, drawing and quartering, sawing in half.
Hanging, shooting and such which gave a quick, but not completely painless death were OK.
It appears modern liberalism wants a completely pain free and non stressful death, even for those viewing.