U.S. judge rules California death penalty system unconstitutional

MSN.COM ^ | 16 JULY 2014 | REUTERS

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

SACRAMENTO Calif. (Reuters) - California's system for imposing and carrying out the death penalty is so long and drawn-out that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and thus is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

Ruling in the case of Ernest Dewayne Jones, who was condemned to death in 1995 and has yet to be executed, Judge Cormac J. Carney of the U.S. Central District of California said that to take "nearly a generation" to decide on Jones' appeals was unconstitutional

[Raymann]

Actually strangulation by hanging was the only way used until 1866 when calculating rope length by weight was introduced to break necks instead.

[Politicalkiddo]

Interesting. Forgive my ignorance. But that fact further punctuates my point. That wasn’t considered cruel or unusual. It sure as heck is cheaper than these stupid drugs they use now.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Sacco and Vanzetti tried that too, at the last minute. There supporters had delayed execution for seven years with absurd and at the time novel legal maneuvers. At the last minute, they complained that the seven year hiatus between the crime and execution constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The courts didn’t buy it. In the nearly contemporaneous and equally infamous “Double Indemnity” murder trial, the interval between the murder and the double execution was 10 months.