And how is this not pre-meditated murder? The whole point of crucifixation is to induce suffocation due to pain and exhaustion. You simply can not breath when held in this position, unless you can stand up. The Romans sped the process up by driving a nail through the feet (ankles), making the ability to stand painful in the extreme. The Romanian clergy solved this problem by stuffing rags in the Nun's mouth.
In my humble opinion, this was a pre-meditated murder, committed with savage sadism. What was good enough for the victim, should be good enough for those who committed this heinous crime.
Murder, yes. But crucifixion? Not so sure. This may be the fault of "reporters." "Bound to a cross" doesn't necessarily mean what we recognize as crucifixion. We haven't even been told that the cross was vertical rather than horizontal. "Marks on her hands and her feet"? What kind of marks? And we've heard absolutely nothing about the results of an autopsy. Real crucifixion, as you say, doesn't depend on a gag, but on the victim's inability to breathe oxygen and dispel carbon dioxide. Drowning results. Yet, if the nun were horizontal, rather than vertical, the gag is the only cause of suffocation. No, absent the fact that the cross was vertical, the cross here was merely symbolic; and the victim didn't drown--she suffocated.