Lethal Injection Under Fire Again

[Doc]

Hi,
Yes, and it is another example of the problem with the extreme terseness of parts of the US Constitution and Amendments.  There are two issues that must be considered.  One is the mores of the times that statement was written.  At that time, hanging was not a drop that broke the neck, it was slow strangulation.  And it was an accepted, as was ridicule at the pillory.  The 'cruel' punishments were things like drawing, pressing, quartering, etc.  Basically means to torture someone to death.  The framers of the Constitution would not have batted an eyelash at something as humane as lethal injection, except possibly to observe that it was more mercy than the recipient deserved.

The second point, of course, is that the whole ". . . nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."  is a load of nonsense.  Punishment is cruel or it is not punishment. It is not in it's being cruel that it needs to be judged but in how much of that cruelty is necessary.  When inmates have a better life than they had on the street, with more free time, better health services, even better meals, then is this actually punishment for them?  Wouldn't making little rocks from big ones, or working on a chain gang be more appropriate?  If they are paying a debt to society, shouldn't there actually be some payment?  Even if it is only symbolic?

And as to 'unusual', too many people now seem to use the normal life of a non incarcerated member of society as the model for usual.  Once again, if an inmate is living at the standard of his 'usual' out of prison life, and sometimes better, is there any punishment really going on?  Seems to me that there isn't.  If going to prison is little more than an inconvenience, if there's no mental or physical pain involved, then it becomes meaningless.  And judging from what is happening in the USA, our attitude to 'cruel and unusual punishments' has destroyed the concept of correction in our correction facilities and has left only a means to briefly protect society from predators.

As for the whole death penalty debate, Jimmy is glue.

--Pete
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Yeah. What he said. It's hard to punish some one when they sit in an air conditioned room all day playing some Playstation to keep them "pacified" and content. Add to that libraries, movies, and all manner of comforts. Just laze around all day and not do a damn thing. They need to be pacified because they have to much friggin free time sitting around all the damn day on their lazy ass.

I'd be willing give up the death penalty in exchange for an actual lifetime of hard backbreaking labour. Work them to death. Sun up to sun down. Busting rocks. Chain gangs. Hell, solve the agro labour problem by having chain gangs go out there and pick fruit all the damn day instead of illegal aliens.

And when the day is done, no hot showers, no comfort foods, no comfortable bed in an air conditioned cell. Give em some beans, some greens, and a all the lukewarm water they can drink or shower with. No books. Of any kind, except for religious books. Nothing to distract them during those long nights. Nothing. Let them lay awake at night bored as hell after each horrible day and think about what brought them to this point.

There is no real punishment now. People look forward to going to prison, or going back to prison, because they can have a better life on the inside than they could on the outside. Prison, and the death penalty, should scare the bloody bejesus out of people.