Who determines what is cruel punishment? Apparently juries found parties guilty and those parties were given the death penalty. Are jurors guilty of violating the US Constitution? If that was true, it would be OFF the table, wouldn’t it?
On death sentences, what manner would be acceptable under the Constitution? What would NOT be considered cruel punishment?
I support the death penalty. My question wasn’t intended to argue against it. I do not, however, support a “cruel” method of execution.
Dan W, however, seems to support “cruel” punishments, arguing that the constitution’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual” punishment allows punishments that are EITHER cruel OR unusual, but not punishments that are BOTH cruel AND unusual.
So, what is cruel? That’s hard to say. It’s kind of like pornography. I recognize it when I see it. I am not of the opinion that a nitrogen execution is cruel. But that wasn’t the question. The question was whether or not the constitution’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment” would generally allow punishments that are cruel, as long as they are not also unusual.
Note, too, that this constitutional prohibition does not apply only to capital punishment. If Dan W is correct that the Constitution does allow cruel punishments as long as they are not also unusual, then that is a flaw we should correct, or we will end up just like the Viet Cong. And that’s not a place I’m willing to go.