Cruel and Unusual Punishment
- Punishments prescribed by law, were in the old days cruel and unusual by today's standards.
- Under Roman law, methods of execution could include crucifixion, drowning at sea, or even impalement.
- Under Mosaic Law, stoning, hanging or sawing asunder was the penalty for most capital crimes.
- During the Middle Ages, capital punishment was accompanied by torture.
- The top ten Most gruesome methods of execution? The descriptions included in this external link are graphic and brutal, but they point out that capital punishment is informed by evolving standards of decency.
- Roughly once every 22 days, a convicted killer is executed in the Huntsville "Walls" unit in Texas. He will not be allowed to choose his last meal, but he can choose his last words!
Barbaric to Civilized?
- Capital punishment is used as a final, most harsh penalty for the crimes of treason, political assassination homicide and serious sexual offences.
- Previously it would have also been applied to crimes of sacrilegious acts.
- Methods of execution do matter, it is a mirror that reflects the ideology's of the current society.
- What we deem 'humane capital punishment' will continue to evolve as contemporary standards of decency evolve.