The Torture of Capital Punishment

In Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), the United States Supreme Court ruled that the “imposition and carrying out of the death penalty in [Furman and its companion] cases constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.” Executions cannot be considered humane since pain, both physical and psychological, are an innate feature of the death penalty. The gruesome spectacle of a botched execution happens in an average of 3% of cases. Examples of problems include, among other things, inmates catching fire while being electrocuted, being strangled during hangings (instead of having their necks broken), and being administered the wrong dosages of specific drugs for lethal injections.

Society, in general, disagrees with the infliction of torture especially when it leads to death. So why is it admissible for a government to enact the same principles it admonishes onto its citizens? Like torture, an execution constitutes an extreme physical and mental assault on a person already rendered helpless. The facts and circumstances of most capital cases should shock the collective conscience of judges and society. The criminal justice system must consider a more preventative approach to addressing systemic issues that lead to criminal activity. Criminals no doubt deserve to be punished, and the severity of the punishment should be appropriate to their culpability and the harm they have caused the innocent. But severity of punishment has its limits — imposed by both justice and our common human dignity.