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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Cruel and Unusual?

We talked yesterday about the 8th Amendment in class, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment for prisoners. That said, do you think that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment? Or should it continue to be the ultimate punishment for people who commit terrible crimes?

3 Comments:

At 7:36 PM, Blogger JLBinChicago said...

I am glad that Vinay brought up forms of execution. The U.S. has moved greatly toward lethal injection, although some states still use the electric chair. Some states offer a choice between lethal injection and hanging or firing squad (although this is being fazed out so that people aren't going out in a "blaze of glory"). Hanging is actually viewed as more humane than the electric chair - if performed properly, it is almost instananeous. Just thought I'd pass this along...

 
At 2:46 PM, Blogger JLBinChicago said...

OK - so we have learned now that minors (those under 18) cannot be executed anymore (Roper v. Simmons). Thoughts on this?

 
At 4:53 PM, Blogger JLBinChicago said...

Vinay - Your question is a very good one. Up until recently, some states were executing the mentally disabled (there had been a high profile such case in Texas when Bush was governor). But in 2002, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the Atkins v. Virginia case that executing the mentally retarded was unconstitutional. However, this isn't an umbrella for all mental disabilities. In most cases of mental impairment and murder, the convicted felon is placed in a mental facility. This came into play when Andrea Yates was convicted of killing her 5 children several years ago - she had suffered tremendous postpartum psychosis and was believed to have killed her children due to this mental condition. She has been in a facility in Texas since then.

 

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