Quote:
Originally posted by texas*princess
 I thought hanging was 'cruel and unusual punishment' according to the U.S! that's crazy! I would have thought that firing squad would have been classified as cruel & unusual, but I guess not.
If that's the way they want to go, more power to 'em!
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There is actual pain-- excruciating pain felt by the person being hanged. And depending on the expertise of the person who fashioned the noose (and the length of rope) it can take up to several minutes for a neck to snap. Also, if the condemned is too heavy he can possbily become decapitated. Bad, for him, worse for the spectators.
Hanging is probably one of the least exact forms of capital punishment.
That fact, not necessarily the fact that the end result of all forms is death, is what determines whether it is cruel and unusual.
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As for firing squad, I can see how, psychologically, it is easier for the condemened to handle. In lethal injection, gas chamber and elelctric chair, there is much prep time in which the condemned is in the same room as their instrument of death.
For the firing squad, I believe they do not bring in the gunmen until after the condemned is blindfolded.