The Story Of Cruel And Unusual (boston Review Books) - Colin Dayan And Jeremy Waldron

The Iraqi war and the U.S. war on terror have brought the issue of torture to the forefront. Have our actions become too similar to those we have defined as terrorists? Current Bush administration policy as well as recent Supreme Court rulings and interpretations of cruel and unusual punishment have strained Eighth Amendment protections, particularly for those defined as "criminal" and by extension for illegal enemy combatants and others outside the protected class. Humanities professor Dayan traces the history of the debate about punishment to slavery in the American colonies, when inhumane punishment was permitted as long as it was administered humanely, with the judgment regarding cruelty always favoring the slaveholder's interest over the slave's. Post-Reconstruction, the debate about humane punishment shifted from slaves to criminals, who were not extended the equal protection now purportedly extended to others. Dayan maintains that our history of slavery and dehumanization of the imprisoned have created the climate of tolerance toward abuse and torture revealed at Abu Ghraib. Vernon Ford
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