can we rethink the VIIIth amendment to the constitution?

[King_Stannis]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,57553,00.html


why, oh why can't we inflict cruel and unusual punishment on people like this?

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

No need to go changing our beloved Constitution...

Afterall, it isn't cruel if it's justified, and it won't be 'unusual' if we start doing it regularly

 

[King_Stannis]

No need to go changing our beloved Constitution...

Afterall, it isn't cruel if it's justified, and it won't be 'unusual' if we start doing it regularly

i like the cut of your jib, my friend!

 

[Vaxalon]

Can we? Yes. May we? Sure.

SHOULD we?

NO.

The eighth amendment is the only thing that prevents regressive state governments from doing barbaric things like hanging, mutilating, or sexually abusing prisoners. Rethink it if you like, but I think you will discover, upon reflection, that an enlightened and rational culture does not engage in revenge, because revenge is a mode of action that devolves into chaos far too quickly.

 

[Lizard]

The eighth amendment is the only thing that prevents regressive state governments from doing barbaric things like hanging, mutilating, or sexually abusing prisoners. Rethink it if you like, but I think you will discover, upon reflection, that an enlightened and rational culture does not engage in revenge, because revenge is a mode of action that devolves into chaos far too quickly.

Actually, it doesn't. "Cruel&Unusual", as an earlier poster noted, are very subjective. The recent SC decision banning the execution of the mentally retarded, which reversed an earlier decision, was based on the number of state laws which had passed banning such executions. Thus, the judges reasoned, the majority of Americans viewed such punishment as 'cruel and unusual'.

It can go the other way, as well. If a groundswell of "Death by having your gnoolies gnawed by angry pit-bulls" advocates arises, such punishments might not be considered 'cruel and unusual'.

Me, I've always felt murders should die in the same manner as their victims. You kill someone with a fairly clean shot through the head, that's how you go. You feed someone into a cuisinart while they're still alive, well...so it goes.

 

[King_Stannis]

Can we? Yes. May we? Sure.

SHOULD we?

NO.

The eighth amendment is the only thing that prevents regressive state governments from doing barbaric things like hanging, mutilating, or sexually abusing prisoners. Rethink it if you like, but I think you will discover, upon reflection, that an enlightened and rational culture does not engage in revenge, because revenge is a mode of action that devolves into chaos far too quickly.

well, what if we reserved it for special cases like this? jury comes back with a guilty verdict and a special order to give this creep "the business". bring out the hammer and start wailing away on his testicles......i see no problem with that in this case or any other where a child is killed.

hanging is not "regressive" in my book. in fact, it's pretty cost effective.

sexual abuse of prisoners goes on all the time right now in our enlightened and rational culture. granted it's by the prisoners themselves.

revenge is a little underrated, too.

 

[Wolfen Priest]

Well, if abortion ever becomes illegal (and punishable by death), we would have some mighty disgusting executions.

 

[DerianCypher]

Vaxalon, if I remember correctly hanging does not violate the 8th amendment. In fact, I believe it is still a viable option for the death penalty in some states. It just hasn't been used in so long because our culture has turned to different methods.

 

[King_Stannis]

now remember, folks, let's not turn this into a debate about the death penalty. i only want these people who are sentenced to death to get there by being tortured to death.

 

[KnowTheToe]

This is dangerously close to a political discussion.

But I think "in my campaigns" that punishing someone the same way they kill would be too much like revenge and would not fit the credo of the Paladin or a society trying to strive toward lawful good.