Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

"excessive bail should not be required, nor excessive fine imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted"

it has observed that though the death penalty was permissible, its effect was lost in case of delay (Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976). The Court also has repeatedly examined the consequences on a prisoner who was under the spectre of death over a period of time and has emphasised "when a prisoner sentenced by a Court to death is confined in the penitentiary awaiting the execution of the sentence, one of the most horrible feelings to which he can be subjected during that time is the uncertainty during the whole of it". The U.S. Supreme Court and other courts have repeatedly held that  Criminal Appeal "the cruelty of capital punishment lies not only in the execution itself and the pain incident thereto, but also in the dehumanizing effects of the lengthy imprisonment prior to execution" and that "the prospect of pending execution exacts a frightful toll during the inevitable long wait between the imposition of sentence and the actual infliction of death".(Furman v. Georgia 408 U.S. 238, 288-289 (1972)