Cruel or Unusual?
All the debate on this sub has forced me to think about developing new techniques for executions that would be effective, efficient, and relatively painless for the condemned. I've developed a new technique that I think might address most of these concerns.
The condemned person would be fitted with a hard polymeric collar around their neck. The collar would include a GPS module, an rf transceiver, a processor, and one or more explosives that are shaped charges. When the order for execution is authorized an instruction can be transmitted wirelessly to the device, causing the processor to detonate the charges in the collar.
Death would be instantaneous so the condemned would not suffer. The nice thing about this system is that it would not require any of the sort of barbaric rituals still practiced in executions. The condemned would not have to be led to some sort of execution chamber, or even informed in advance of the execution order. In fact, they would not necessarily have to be kept in strick confinement. They would not even know the time had come. One moment they could be walking in a forest or hiking on a beach and the next moment the charges are triggered and their head is separated from their body.
Would this type of system pass the legal tests for cruel and unusual punshment?