What Of The Eighth Amendment, And A Request To Die Instantly, By Firing Squad?! Supremes' Dissenters Make Powerful Fact-Based Argument, In Alabama.

Six black robes do not feel suffocation is a cruel punishment. Six black robes think "he had it comin'. . . ." [Yes, this is but another one -- of a decades-long series -- on a tangent I follow.]

That is beneath the bare minimum humanity, civility and dignity the Founders and Framers envisioned, now about two and a half centurries ago. [Yes, hanging was the normal method, back then -- but in point of fact, the condemned's neck almost always snapped immediately, ending any torture -- i.e., in death -- in under three seconds.] Full stop.

Here's the cogent dissent, just filed -- and published -- this morning; and the most persuasive bit:

. . .JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE KAGAN and JUSTICE JACKSON join, dissenting from the denial of application for stay and denial of certiorari.

Take out your phone, go to the clock app, and find the stopwatch. Click start. Now watch the seconds as they climb. Three seconds come and go in a blink. At the thirty-second mark, your mind starts to wander. One minute passes, and you begin to think that this is taking a long time. Two. . . three. . . . The clock ticks on. Then, finally, you make it to four minutes. Hit stop. Now imagine for that entire time, you are suffocating. You want to breathe; you have to breathe. But you are strapped to a gurney with a mask on your face pumping your lungs with nitrogen gas. Your mind knows that the gas will kill you. But your body keeps telling you to breathe.

That is what awaits Anthony Boyd tonight.

For two to four minutes, Boyd will remain conscious while the State of Alabama kills him in this way. When the gas starts flowing, he will immediately convulse. He will gasp for air. And he will thrash violently against the restraints holding him in place as he experiences this intense psychological torment until he finally loses consciousness. Just short of twenty minutes later, Boyd will be declared dead. Boyd asks for the barest form of mercy: to die by firing squad, which would kill him in seconds, rather than by a torturous suffocation lasting up to four minutes. The Constitution would grant him that grace. My colleagues do not. This Court thus turns its back on Boyd and on the Eighth Amendment’s guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment.

Because the Court should have instead granted a stay of execution and Boyd’s petition for certiorari, I respectfully dissent. . . .

Damn. Out. What on Earth would it take -- for the six black robes. . . to find something. . . cruel, one wonders? Onward, resolutely just the same.

नमस्ते