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Cruel and unusual punishment
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Cruel and unusual punishment is a statement implying that governments shall not inflict such treatment for crimes, regardless of their degree of severity. It was founded in the English Bill of Rights, which was signed in 1689 by King William III and Queen Mary II who were then the joint rulers of England following the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688.
These exact words later appeared in the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1787). The British Slavery Amelioration Act of 1798 also used the term, forbidding slave owners from using "cruel and unusual punishment" on slaves in the British Caribbean colonies.
Very similar words ('No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment') appear in Article Five of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/217, December 10, 1948).
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Encyclopedia
Cruel and unusual punishment is a statement implying that governments shall not inflict such treatment for crimes, regardless of their degree of severity. It was founded in the English Bill of Rights, which was signed in 1689 by King William III and Queen Mary II who were then the joint rulers of England following the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688.
These exact words later appeared in the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1787). The British Slavery Amelioration Act of 1798 also used the term, forbidding slave owners from using "cruel and unusual punishment" on slaves in the British Caribbean colonies.
Very similar words ('No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment') appear in Article Five of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/217, December 10, 1948). The right, under a different formulation ('No one shall be subjected to [...] inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.') is found in Article Three of the European Convention on Human Rights (1950). The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) also contains this fundamental right in section 12 and it is to be found again in Article Four (quoting the European Convention verbatim) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000). It is also found in Article 16 of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Definition
What these words mean in practice is the subject of much legal argument. In general the interpretation of each of the two words is in keeping with the basic legal maxim that the "punishment should fit the crime".
The term "cruel" is necessarily flexible according to the circumstances, since all punishments have the potential to be cruel to some greater or lesser degree. The "unusual" provision has proven easier to interpret: providing that persons will not be subjected to arbitrary, humorous, or capricious punishment outside the normal course of the law (for example, tarring and feathering). Another way to make the punishment usual is to simply use it more often.
Though it has been a part of the law in the United States since its inception, by the twentieth century many people in the U.S. came to consider capital punishment per se to be a cruel and unusual punishment. As of 2006, twelve U.S. states have legislatively abolished the death penalty, and others have specifically prohibited certain methods of execution, e.g. by electrocution, by hanging, etc. The United States Supreme Court ruled that the application of the death penalty, in certain circumstances such as the execution of a minor under the age of 18, or of a mentally handicapped person is unconstitutional, regardless of the existence of other aggravating circumstances. The Court also ruled in 1983 that the imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment without parole for a non-violent felony may constitute cruel and unusual punishment, although a subsequent decision represented a partial retreat from that position.
At the time the Eighth Amendment was written, capital punishment was in common use, in America, in Great Britain, and in Western Europe. There also existed punishments that were generally considered cruel and unusual, such as hanging, drawing, and quartering; burning at the stake; and impalement.
In the European Union, on the other hand, prohibition of the death penalty has been made a fundamental condition which must either be passed into the law of states hoping to join, or, as in the case of Latvia, its use be subject to a moratorium. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (which currently carries no legal standing) states in its second article that "Everyone has the right to life. No one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed."
History
For most of recorded history, capital punishments were often deliberately painful. Severe historical penalties include breaking wheel, boiling to death, flaying, disembowelment, crucifixion, impalement, crushing, stoning, execution by burning, dismemberment, sawing, decapitation, scaphism, or necklacing.
Impalement was a method of torture and execution whereby a person is pierced with a long stake. The penetration can be through the sides, from the rectum, or through the mouth. This method would lead to a slow and painful death. Often, the victim was hoisted into the air after partial impalement. Gravity and the victim's own struggles would cause him to slide down the pole, especially if the pole were on a wagon carrying war prizes and prisoners. Death could take many days. Impalement was frequently practiced in Asia and Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Vlad III Dracula, who learned the method of killing by impalement while staying in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, as a prisoner, and Ivan the Terrible have passed into legend as major users of the method.
Breaking wheel was a torturous capital punishment device used in the Middle Ages and early modern times for public execution by cudgeling to death, especially in France and Germany. In France the condemned were placed on a cart-wheel with their limbs stretched out along the spokes over two sturdy wooden beams. The wheel was made to revolve slowly. Through the openings between the spokes, the executioner hit the victim with an iron hammer that could easily break the victim's bones. This process was repeated several times per limb. Once his bones were broken, he was left on the wheel to die. It could take hours, even days, before shock and dehydration caused death. The punishment was abolished in Germany as late as 1827.
See also
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- (Approved by the Ninth International Conference of American States, Bogotá, Colombia, 1948)
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