Between 20, 000 and 80, 000 people are thought to be held in solitary confinement on any given day in the United States, making the practice more common here than in any other country, said Juan Mendez, the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture and other forms of cruel punishment.
In 1972 the United States Supreme Court ruled that all death penalty laws were cruel and unusual punishment.
His lawyers argue that an unprecedented second execution attempt on Broom would violate a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Those doctors had been asked to attend the execution after Morales's legal team called California's lethal injection cocktail cruel and unusual punishment.
Are they talking about intellectual property, First Amendment issues (speech), Fourth Amendment issues (privacy), or Eighth Amendment issues (the cruel and unusual punishment of commenters)?
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Well, as far as major treaties go, the only thing they are left with is the 8th Amendment of the Constitution (the "cruel and unusual punishment" amendment).
If those other forms of execution violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, they argue, then how much more so should this, which may be causing more pain?
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in 1890 not to hear Kemmler's appeal is still cited as proof that electrocution is neither cruel nor unusual punishment (which is banned by the U.S. Constitution).
In Roper, the Court drew on international criticism of the death penalty to buttress the argument that it should be prohibited for juveniles under the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Following a brief moratorium in 1972, when the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty's application violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, it was reinstated in 38 states from 1976.
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Running the phone against only the Galaxy S III sounds like it would be a cruel and unusual punishment, and of course that superphone wins on every count -- but the 1.6GHz Medfield phone still copes admirably.
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So they don't want to hear the issue on the merits of cruel and unusual punishment, but they do say that the prisoners who come forward and say they never got to argue this should have their day in court.
McCain borrows the term cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment (CID) from the 1984 United Nations Convention Against Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT).
Previous administrations refused to extradite people since it was considered "cruel and unusual" punishment and worse if the defendant faced capital punishment.
It is natural to want to punish cruel regimes, but excessive punishment can not only breed resentment but also strengthen those it is meant to weaken.
"The government stands firmly against torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, " the Cabinet Office said at the time.
But the UN investigator said the US must allow him to determine whether the conditions at Quantico that Pte Manning experienced amounted to "torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".
"Anal examinations conducted to "prove" same-sex conduct are scientifically invalid and, furthermore, if they were conducted without the men's consent, contravene the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment under international law, " said Mr Mawanza.
Such violations and obstacles include, as well as torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, summary and arbitrary executions, disappearances, arbitrary detentions, all forms of racism, racial discrimination and apartheid, foreign occupation and alien domination, xenophobia, poverty, hunger and other denials of economic, social and cultural rights, religious intolerance, terrorism, discrimination against women and lack of the rule of law.
In too many cases, it seems, terrorist suspects are subjected to cruel treatment not for the sake of obtaining information, but for the purposes of punishment or humiliation.
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