Supremes on the Supreme Price for Murder

Letter to Romans: Arizona just executed a man for dosing his victims with gas & torching them. I’ve always thought death penalty was ok under the 8^th Amendment in such cases cause its bar on “Cruel” punishment was a life sentence in hell without parole.

Nor did it ever seem to me that the death penalty was also barred by the 8^th as an “unusual” punishment. Color me heartless, but execution is anything but “unusual” in most of the world. Think China, Russia, North Korea, Iran. Then, again, the death penalty was quite common in the time of the Founding Fathers. Think Nathan Hale, the American Revolutionary War hero boldly accepting his hanging at the hands of the British & declaring: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Then, there’s Abraham Lincoln who struggled mightily during the Civil War with the execution of court-martialed deserters. While he commuted the death sentence of many an accused Union soldier, quite a few went to the gallows anyway.

So, as 13 state executions have already happened this year & several are pending, it’s a good time to revisit what the US Supreme Court has ruled to be the law of the land. In interpreting the 8^th Amendment over time, the Supremes have ok’d executions for murder (or high crimes like treason) only if it’s heinous & only if procedural safeguards were in place to prevent arbitrariness. The controlling case is 1976’s Gregg v. Georgia, in which the Justices ruled the death penalty wasn’t inherently unconstitutional as many reformists had argued. But they warned the states wanting to impose the ultimate price for murder they’d have to bear the burden of separate sentencing hearings before a jury that seriously considers mitigating circumstances, then, provide for “automatic” appellate review of the process. Fair enough?

Davd Soul