Cruel and Unusual History - NYT »
“Lucky” Willie Francis, as the press called him, was a stuttering 17-year-old from St. Martinville, La. In 1946, he walked away from the electric chair known as “Gruesome Gertie” when two executioners (an inmate and a guard) from the state penitentiary at Angola botched the wiring of the chair.
When the switch was thrown, Francis strained against the straps and began rocking and sliding in the chair, pleading with the sheriff and the executioners to halt the proceedings. “I am n-n-not dying!” he screamed. Gov. Jimmie Davis* ordered Francis returned to the chair six days later.
Francis’ lawyers obtained a stay, and the case reached the Supreme Court. Justice Felix Frankfurter defined the teenager’s ordeal as an “innocent misadventure.” In the decision, Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, the court held that “accidents happen for which no man is to blame,” and that such “an accident, with no suggestion of malevolence” did not violate the Constitution.
…In his majority opinion last week, Chief Justice Roberts called Louisiana’s first attempt at executing Francis an “isolated mishap” that “while regrettable, does not suggest cruelty.”
While the NYT mentions a few cases of disastrously flawed executions, there are dozens more in recent US history. As was made abundantly clear in Errol Morris’ ‘Mr. Death,’ it is quite common for mishaps to turn executions into torture, whichever mechanism is used.
The Constitution does not prohibit “intentionally” cruel and usual punishment, it prohibits all cruel and unusual punishment; that is, the intent of the authorities does not particularly matter. That executions cannot be carried out without substantial aberrations is demonstrable; the states have established that enacting the death penalty without accidental torture is beyond their capability. Consistent gross negligence is cruel, in the end.
Among the many excellent reasons to oppose capital punishment (and I am aware of several arguments in its favor, I should note, although I am not persuaded by them), this is a serious one: we are too fallible to institutionalize killing.
*Note: the NYT doesn’t mention this, but Jimmie Davis wrote “You Are My Sunshine,” a kind of sad song which most people think is happy.