Cruel, unusual,and gratuitous

[_subgenius]

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Bucklew v. Precythe, which it handed down Monday on a party-line vote, is at once the most significant Eighth Amendment decision of the last several decades and the cruelest in at least as much time.

Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion tosses out a basic assumption that animated the Court’s understanding of what constitutes a “cruel and unusual” punishment for more than half a century. In the process, he writes that the state of Missouri may effectively torture a man to death — so long as it does not gratuitously inflict pain for the sheer purpose of inflicting pain.

see also Glossip v Gross.

It seems inevitable that cruel/unusual would require a run through the legal definition sieve, and i believe that the majority opinion on this case has merit; and does not open up to "slippery slope".

I am curious if people reading this, who agree with death penalty, have an opinion that agrees/disagrees with this ruling?