Michael J. Perry (Emory University School of Law) has posted Is Capital Punishment ‘Cruel and Unusual’? (THE CONSTITUTIONAL MORALITY OF THE UNITED STATES: HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUDICIAL REVIEW, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
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The right of every human being – every human being without exception – not to be subjected to any punishment that is “cruel, inhuman or degrading” is an international human right. A version of that right is entrenched in the constitutional law of the United States: the right of every human being – again, without exception – not to be subjected to any punishment that is “cruel and unusual”. In this paper, I inquire both whether capital punishment is “cruel, inhuman or degrading” and, next, whether capital punishment is “cruel and unusual”.
