Opinion ID: 877465
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 23

Heading: death by hanging as constituting cruel and unusual punishment

Text: Issue TT claims that death by hanging constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under 1972 Mont.Const., Art. II, § 22, and under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Coleman points out that only three states permit death by hanging (Montana, Delaware and Washington) and it has been rejected in all other American jurisdictions and in all European jurisdictions. (I note here than since Coleman filed this claim, the Washington State Supreme Court has held that death by hanging constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. State v. Frampton (1981), 95 Wash.2d 469, 627 P.2d 922.) He alleges that persons executed by hanging die slowly, usually by strangulation, and suffer extreme pain in excess of that inherent in the extinguishment of life. He further alleges that one of the reasons for this slow, tortuous form of death, is that competent hangmen no longer exist in the United States or elsewhere, and therefore the hanging cannot be competently administered. The trial court disposed of this issue by reference to the majority opinion in Coleman II, Mont., 605 P.2d 1000, 1059, where the majority simply deferred to the legislature and stated: We have no power to change these settled provisions of the law, nor can we say that hanging is constitutionally cruel or unusual. The majority opinion has simply denied this claim in its omnibus ruling in part VI of the opinion, disposing of this and 6 other claims. The court states that it has no power to change the law, but the simple fact is that courts have from the beginning of the separation of powers, been changing the law  yes, even settled provisions of law. The real reason is simply that the majority does not want to change the law in this case. But Coleman claims here that he is entitled to an evidentiary hearing to establish that death by hanging is in fact cruel and unusual. This question cannot be rationally decided without first considering the scientific or expert evidence that is now available. The Washington Supreme Court did so, and quoted some graphic testimony and statements as to the barbarity of hanging as the method of inflicting capital punishment. 627 P.2d 934 to 936. The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that the Eighth Amendment  prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment  must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society. Trop v. Dulles (1958), 356 U.S. 86, 78 S.Ct. 590, 2 L.Ed.2d 630. Using this standard ... what might have been common and not thought to be cruel or unusual in 1789 might be completely obnoxious to society in the United States today. Owens-El v. Robinson (1978), 442 F. Supp. 1368, at 1375. The legislature certainly does not have the right to be the last word on the constitutionality of its own legislation, but that is precisely the effect of the court's opinion in Coleman II, and ratified here today sub silentio. The fact that the legislature has provided for hanging as the prescribed method of carrying out the death penalty, or the fact that the legislature has refused to change the method of execution, does not enshrine the legislation on a throne of invincibility from constitutional attack. I would grant Coleman an evidentiary hearing on this issue. Perhaps the evidence would be revealing to all, perhaps even to members of the legislature. In addition to what I have stated here parts II, III and VIII of this dissent should be considered. The combination of these factors screams loudly for a constitutional requirement that only a unanimous jury should be permitted to make the fateful decision of life or death. My experience has been that the judiciary of this state is incapable of fairly and rationally administering a death penalty law. Only by interposing a jury between the defendant and the judiciary can there by any assurance of decisions arrived at only after fair consideration of all the facts.