cruel and unusual punishment
Banned harsh penalties
Cruel and unusual punishment is a legal phrase from the Eighth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, prohibiting penalties that are excessively harsh, degrading, or disproportionate to the offense.
Courts have interpreted this to ban torture, barbaric methods of execution, and sentences grossly out of proportion to the crime committed.
The phrase appears frequently in death penalty debates and prison condition lawsuits.
The court ruled that solitary confinement for decades constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
- viciousCruelly aggressive in nature
- severeExtremely harsh or strict
- brutalSavagely harsh or severe
- justiceFair treatment under law
- harshUnpleasantly severe or rough
cruel treatment · human dignity · atrocious · retribution · barbaric · penalization · inhumane · torture methods · racial bias · Bill of Rights · constitutional rights · solitary confinement · abolition movement · Eighth Amendment · wrongful convictions · civil liberties · human rights · execution chamber
- rightscivil liberties, constitutional rights, right, rights, human rights
- ConstitutionBill of Rights, preamble, articles, U.S. Constitution, Article I
- criminal lawcrime, felony, misdemeanor, murder, robbery
- constitutionsbill of rights, constitutional amendment, constitutional reform, clause, clauses
cruel and unusual punishmenthumane treatment
Kind consideration for welfare
restorative justice · clemency · leniency · amnesty · pardon
cruel and unusual punishmentjust punishment
Fitting penalty for wrongdoing
cruel and unusual punishmentestablished practice
Accepted routine method
cruelty, cruelly, crueler, cruelest, unusual, usually, unusually, usable, punish