Current Indicator Threat Grade
No or UNKNOWN RISK
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UNPRECEDENTLY CRUEL or UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT is INFLICTED
Government has no power to inflict barbarous and torturous bodily punishments, nor those not prescribed by law. You have the right to be safe from judge-imposed punishments that no legislature has enacted. These originate from the 1689 English Bill of Rights.
Punishments that have been explicitly ruled cruel and/or unusual are:
1878 – drawing and quartering, public dissection, burning alive, and disembowelment
1910 – chained at all times, put to hard and painful labor, permanent denial of most natural rights, and subjection to lifetime surveillance
1958 – revocation of U.S. citizenship from natural-born Americans
1962 – 90-day jail sentence for being addicted to narcotics
1972 – arbitrary execution, without written State standards for judges and juries to follow
1976 – mandatory death penalties, if any underlying law leaves the judge or the jury without discretion; deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners
1977 – execution for rape of an adult woman
1982 – execution for “lesser” accomplices to a felony murder
1983 – life imprisonment, without parole, for cashing a $100 check on a closed account
1988 – execution of convicts under the age of 16
1992 - excessive physical force against a restrained prisoner, even without serious injury
2002 - execution of the intellectually disabled
2005 - execution of those under the age of 18 when they committed their crime
2008 – execution for rape of a child, where the victim’s life was not taken
2010 – life imprisonment, without parole, for those under the age of 18, for crimes other than murder
2012 – life imprisonment, without parole, for those under the age of 18, for crimes including murder
Courts have specified the following punishments are neither cruel nor unusual:
1878 – death by firing squad
1890 – electrocution
1976 – execution, as long as determination of guilt and imposition of sentence are separate proceedings
1980 – life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole, imposed per a three strikes law, for fraud crimes totaling $230
1991 – life imprisonment, without parole, for possession of 672 grams (1.5 pounds) of cocaine
2003 – 50 years to life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole, imposed per a three strikes law, for shoplifting crimes totaling $150
Punishments that have been explicitly ruled cruel and/or unusual are:
1878 – drawing and quartering, public dissection, burning alive, and disembowelment
1910 – chained at all times, put to hard and painful labor, permanent denial of most natural rights, and subjection to lifetime surveillance
1958 – revocation of U.S. citizenship from natural-born Americans
1962 – 90-day jail sentence for being addicted to narcotics
1972 – arbitrary execution, without written State standards for judges and juries to follow
1976 – mandatory death penalties, if any underlying law leaves the judge or the jury without discretion; deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners
1977 – execution for rape of an adult woman
1982 – execution for “lesser” accomplices to a felony murder
1983 – life imprisonment, without parole, for cashing a $100 check on a closed account
1988 – execution of convicts under the age of 16
1992 - excessive physical force against a restrained prisoner, even without serious injury
2002 - execution of the intellectually disabled
2005 - execution of those under the age of 18 when they committed their crime
2008 – execution for rape of a child, where the victim’s life was not taken
2010 – life imprisonment, without parole, for those under the age of 18, for crimes other than murder
2012 – life imprisonment, without parole, for those under the age of 18, for crimes including murder
Courts have specified the following punishments are neither cruel nor unusual:
1878 – death by firing squad
1890 – electrocution
1976 – execution, as long as determination of guilt and imposition of sentence are separate proceedings
1980 – life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole, imposed per a three strikes law, for fraud crimes totaling $230
1991 – life imprisonment, without parole, for possession of 672 grams (1.5 pounds) of cocaine
2003 – 50 years to life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole, imposed per a three strikes law, for shoplifting crimes totaling $150
The exact words “cruel or unusual punishment” were first used in the English Bill of Rights 1689. The Founding Generation understood the following as cruel and unusual: pillorying (the stocks), accompanied by corporal punishments such as flagellation (the "whipping post") or mutilation such as branding or having an ear cut off (cropping); disemboweling; decapitation; and drawing and quartering. The common denominator: the causing of prolonged pain to a prisoner who is physically restrained, i.e. torture.
“Disproportionate” or “excessive” punishments first arose as legal concepts in dissent in 1892. They were adopted in 1910. In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren fully rejected the original understanding in favor of the "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." Ever since, the Supreme Court's view of cruel and unusual has been completely untethered to the electorate.
For perspective, the Governments of China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Hamas-controlled Gaza, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant conduct public executions, often in mass, to demonstrate state power to their populations. Decapitation is used in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Executions continue for adultery and apostasy in Saudi Arabia and Iran, blasphemy in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, sorcery in Saudi Arabia, and "economic crimes" in China. In 2011, at least 32 countries impose capital punishment for drug offenses.
“Disproportionate” or “excessive” punishments first arose as legal concepts in dissent in 1892. They were adopted in 1910. In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren fully rejected the original understanding in favor of the "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society." Ever since, the Supreme Court's view of cruel and unusual has been completely untethered to the electorate.
For perspective, the Governments of China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Hamas-controlled Gaza, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant conduct public executions, often in mass, to demonstrate state power to their populations. Decapitation is used in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Executions continue for adultery and apostasy in Saudi Arabia and Iran, blasphemy in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, sorcery in Saudi Arabia, and "economic crimes" in China. In 2011, at least 32 countries impose capital punishment for drug offenses.
Capital punishment, as practiced in the United States of America since 1791, is not what we are talking about here.
Torture, as the Framers knew it, is dangerous to the nation as a whole. The sociopaths required to conduct such heinous acts will be chosen for their obedience to authority. Governments that train and employ state agents practiced in torture are a risk to your life. To wit: China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Hamas-controlled Gaza, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Insofar as the “Living Constitution” fallacy is concerned, it now seems no criminal penalty shall be imposed which the Supreme Court deems unacceptable. The cruel and unusual punishments clause is completely arbitrary today. This is also dangerous. Future Justices, appointed by regimes less concerned about, well, you - could look the other away during a national emergency. Call it the devolving standards of decency that mark the regression of a collapsing society.
Torture, as the Framers knew it, is dangerous to the nation as a whole. The sociopaths required to conduct such heinous acts will be chosen for their obedience to authority. Governments that train and employ state agents practiced in torture are a risk to your life. To wit: China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Hamas-controlled Gaza, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Insofar as the “Living Constitution” fallacy is concerned, it now seems no criminal penalty shall be imposed which the Supreme Court deems unacceptable. The cruel and unusual punishments clause is completely arbitrary today. This is also dangerous. Future Justices, appointed by regimes less concerned about, well, you - could look the other away during a national emergency. Call it the devolving standards of decency that mark the regression of a collapsing society.
Credit
Our Founding Generation
Primary References
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None
Full Indicator Record
Indicator Historical Trend
Today
2017-04-26
| Grade | Date | Headline | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | 22 Dec 2020 | DOJ Finds Rampant Sexual Assaults and Constitutional Violations in Country's Largest Women's Prison | [Reason] |
| MOD | 16 Sep 2020 | In April, She Was Jailed on a Probation Violation. By June, She Was Dead. | [Reason] |
| MOD | 07 Mar 2018 | Judge ordered electric shocks on defendant for not answering questions properly | [Star-Telegram] |
| LOW | 20 Jul 2017 | Inmates coerced into vasectomies in exchange for reduced jail time in Tennessee | [Newschannel5] |
| LOW | 26 Apr 2017 | Wisconsin prison investigated after bipolar inmate dies from dehydration | [Daily Sheeple] |
