The death penalty in practice fell capriciously on a random handful of the condemned.
Evidence
These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual. For, of all the people convicted of rapes and murders in 1967 and 1968, many just as reprehensible as these, the petitioners are among a capriciously selected random handful upon whom the sentence of death has in fact been imposed. [The Constitution] cannot tolerate the infliction of a sentence of death under legal systems that permit this unique penalty to be so wantonly and so freakishly imposed. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2002
Categorization
- DEFINE: Stewart’s ‘cruel and unusual’ is framed as arbitrariness itself rather than painfulness of the punishment.
- XREF: Connects to Furman v. Georgia and the Eighth Amendment jurisprudence of jury discretion. — connects to: Documented execution failures have eroded public confidence in capital punishment — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2100; Death penalty offenses vary so widely they violate proportionality; Even the condemned were left a rational choice among death options — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 95 (+17 more)
- SEED: Angle: ‘Struck by Lightning’ — how arbitrariness, not severity, became the constitutional test for cruelty.
Broader Connections
- Capital punishment was struck down because juries imposed it arbitrarily and freakishly.
#corroborates(0.98) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2002 - Even the condemned were left a rational choice among death options
#contradicts(0.95) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 95 - Documented execution failures have eroded public confidence in capital punishment
#complicates(0.90) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2100 - Society is reluctant to carry out its own death sentences
#complicates(0.90) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2070 - Jurors exonerate themselves by believing executions rarely occur
#complicates(0.90) - The death penalty fails through innocent executions, arbitrariness, and racial discrimination
#corroborates(0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2083 - US public support for the death penalty fell sharply from 2007 to 2012
#complicates(0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1897 - Capital verdicts are often reversed due to inadequate counsel and condemned innocents
#complicates(0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2050 - Death penalty offenses vary so widely they violate proportionality
#complicates(0.80) - Public executions required a witnessing crowd to constitute their meaning and effect
#complicates(0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 113 - Execution crowds could overrule last-minute confessions demanding mercy
#complicates(0.80) - Capital punishment was rare in classical-age penal practice
#complicates(0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 82 - Public executions produced disorder rather than deterrence for the crowd
#complicates(0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 118 - Trial procedure itself biases jurors toward the death penalty after a guilty verdict
#complicates(0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2004 - Death-penalty support personnel become morally disengaged by repeated exposure
#complicates(0.75)