Hamm v. Smith · ¶107

The concept of “cruel” punishments originally meant what it usually means now: “savage” or “barbarous” punishments that “give pain to others, in body or mind.” N. Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Thus, punishments like crucifxion or immolation are “cruel,” but death, by itself, is not. See In re Kemmler, 136 U. S. 436, 446 (1890). In England, capital punishment generally consisted in “being hanged by the neck till dead,” 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 370 (1769) (Blackstone), a method that often involved no pain if performed as intended, S. Banner, The Death Penalty: An American History 170 (2002). But for especially “atrocious crimes” such as high treason, English law contemplated enhanced punishments, including “embowelling alive, beheading, and quartering.” 4 Blackstone 370. The cruelty of such punishments consisted in the…

preliminary print (page proof)
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.