What did the founders mean by cruel and unusual punishment?

Question

Did they mean any kind of death or torture like draw and quarter?

Answer 1

I've often wondered this myself. I think that they meant the kind of torturing that England or Spain may have been famous for at the time. If you have ever toured the Tower of London you'll know what I mean. Drawn and quartered is probably exactly the kind of thing they meant. Today, a lethal injection is considered cruel and unusual. I'm not sure how except its the argument used by people that are simply against capital punishment. Those people would probably be against some sort of instantaneous death ray too. Personally, I think that the guillotine might be the answer (as crazy as it sounds). It was fast and off went your head. There couldn't be much in the way of mistakes like missing a vein or the electricity not be strong enough. I'm sorry to say but there are probably a lot of people out there that deserve cruel and unusual punishment. Some of the heinous things adults do to each other is bad enough but some of the things that have been done to little defenseless kids is just too much. If someone killed someone you were very close to it would be hard to feel otherwise.

Answer 2

It is obvious that their standards were wider than ours.

They certainly did mean forbidding judicial use of torture (like water, the boot, thumbscrews, or pressing to plead), as well as the less humane ways to inflict the death penalty, such as drawing and quartering or breaking on the wheel.

However, it must be noted that corporal punishment, such as caning, beating with stciks, or flogging continued being legal for decades after the bill of rights was adopted. Similarly, they had nothing against short drop hanging (essentially slow strangulation by your own weight), since the long drop was developed in the UK only in the 1850s, and the principle of the death penalty was never questioned at the time. .

Answer 3

No, they did not. Through a series of cases with the Supreme Court it has been decided that "cruel and unusual" punishment means:
1. It must be both cruel AND unusual.
2. It must be beyond what is normally prescribed for such crime committed.
and
3. It must be a punishment so severe as to go beyond the boundaries of what reasonable societal morals would allow.

Answer 4

They came out of a time where the state was run by the church. They would burn you at the stake if you didn't agree religiously with something the leaders of the church said. They were Godly and believed in religion but believed in limits. They believed the punishment must fit the crime. Murderers were executed. I think alot of people don't have a sober view of what they meant. I studied world history for awhile before I got into American history. It helped to see where we fit into the time line of modern politics. In their day they would throw you in a dungeon and let them rot because the crown or church officials didn't like them or based on rumors spawn in jealousy. Draw and quartering was done by the English monarchy around that time and could have been one of the things they meant.

Answer 5

This clause was devised in response to the use of force in obtaining confessions. Think CIA-type tactics. Continual noise so you can't sleep. Loud noise to damage your hearing. Wet/flooded cell, so you are always cold and blistering and sick, etc. Public, humiliating displays or treatment. Torture was only one part of their concerns when they wrote this phrase, but death really wasn't the issue here. The founders knew that given the right kinds of coersion in the right conditions, anyone would confess to anything (about anyone, including oneself or one's friend or family), and this would undermine justice completely.

Answer 6

Considering that hanging and whipping were considered standard punishments of the day, it would have to be real torture, like bastinados (caning the feet), breaking on the wheel, disembowelment, etc.

Answer 7

Whatever it was I'm sure they did not mean that a condemned criminal should not feel pain when executed, as the flaming do-gooders have ordained today.