Or in defense-attorney speak: "a cruel and unusual death."
I actually heard one of these talking heads the other day state that if the drug mixture is not pure it will violate his “Constitutional right to a painless death.”
I, of course, whipped out my Constitution since this was entirely new on me and I’ll be damned if I can’t find anywhere in the that document or any of the Amendments that states a condemned prisoner has the right to a painless death.
But I did see the “cruel and unusual punishments” part of the 8th Amendment like you mentioned. The thing that gets me with that Amendment is the word “and”.
Not “or”, “and”. This makes me think, if the punishment is cruel, but common, isn’t it still Constitutional? This opens up a lot of options in my opinion, and makes any argument for a painless death irrelevant.
I guess we could have injected him with something that causes cancer. Then we could have watched him die over a year or so.
That seems pretty common these days. I wonder how they would feel about that.
It’s cruel and unusual punishment to have to put your life in the hands of a trial lawyer.