The death penalty is cruel and unusual. It is cruel because it is a punishment of the earliest days of penology, when slavery, branding, and other corporal punishments were common, but executions have no place in a civilized society. It is unusual because only the United States of all the western industrialized nations engages in this punishment. It is also unusual because only a random sampling of convicted murderers in the United States receive a sentence of death. With the death penalty being cruel and unusual, it goes against our eighth amendment. The eight amendment clearly states “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Yet, murdering someone in a gas chamber, or …show more content…
As mentioned before, the average death row inmate waits for up to fifteen years, but some may wait for their execution for up to thirty. This waiting time can cause “Death Row Phenomenon” or “Death Row Syndrome.” The terms are often used interchangeably, and the ACLU describes Death Row Phenomenon as the destructive consequences of long-term solitary confinement and the inevitable anxiety that results from awaiting one’s own death, while Death Row Syndrome refers to the severe psychological illness that often results from Death Row Phenomenon. While being in solitary confinement, one can assume that it may drive someone mad, and this is very true. While in confinement the inmates are isolated for up to twenty-three hours each day—with no access to training or educational programs, recreational activities, or regular visits. These intense conditions often provoke delusions, paranoia, agitation, psychosis, and self-destructive behavior. To allow someone to cause these sorts of symptoms and behaviors is inhumane, cruel, and most certainly unusual. Though it is also dangerous for public safety because when death row inmates successfully appeal their sentences, they are transferred into the general inmate population, and when death row inmates are exonerated, they are released into the