Our Constitution has a clause in it that prohibits the use of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. Over my lifetime, more years than I care to admit, I have heard that phrase bandied about in arguments against the practice of capital punishment. I really don’t see this a case against the death penalty myself.

I think the first thing that needs to be determined is what the framers meant by the terminology ‘Cruel and Unusual.’ We have methods of execution that are anything but cruel. Lethal injection is not cruel, anymore than being put under before surgery is cruel. Electrocution might be considered cruel, but it is probably harder for the witnesses to observe than for the condemned to experience.

Cruelty stems not so much from the method, but the intent. There are truly horrible ways to die, and some of those are being used in this day and age as a form of capital punishment. Take for example stoning. This is a method of execution currently in use in some Muslim Nations in the Middle East. Burying a man to his waist in the ground then throwing stones at him until he is dead is not something I want to witness, but it is an acceptable method for some crimes in Muslim countries.

Given the choice between lethal injection, even with dirty needles, or stoning, I think most people would choose the injection as a merciful way to be executed. Cruelty implies a desire to hurt or inflict pain. That is not what capital punishment should be, but a simple execution of the decision of the court.

If we are not going to actually use the penalty, we should not even have it available. That becomes cruelty to the victims and their families. If we are going to have it in our toolkit for punishing criminals, it should be used, and used consistently. When it is used consistently, it ceases to be unusual and thus becomes constitutional. Viola!

The biggest benefit to actually using capital punishment is that it reduces recidivism to 0%. There is no concern about a violent criminal being paroled years after the conviction, no continual drain on scarce resources eliminating pressure on the penal system.