Republican Associate Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty
On Monday, five justices of the Supreme Court authorized Missouri to torture a man to death. In the process, they appear to have overruled decades of Eighth Amendment precedents in a quest to let states impose barbaric punishments, including excruciating executions, on prisoners. The court’s conservative majority has converted a once-fringe view into the law of the land, imperiling dozens of decisions protecting the rights of death row inmates, as well as juvenile offenders. Its ruling signals the end of an Eighth Amendment jurisprudence governed by “civilized standards”—and the beginning of a new, brutal era in American capital punishment.
Russell Bucklew is a death row inmate in Missouri who suffers from a rare medical condition called cavernous hemangioma. Due to this disorder, his body is covered with tumors filled with blood vessels. Tumors in Bucklew’s neck and throat, his lips and uvula, which make it difficult for him to breathe. They are highly sensitive and frequently squirt […]
The article refers to “civilized standards” of execution. When it comes to state mandated death can such ever meet that standard? As we are seeing, as has been shown through out history civilization is but a thin veneer over our emotional tribal natures. Punish the evil doer, the criminal who doesn’t deserve any consideration and if he didn’t do the crime? Oh well….