Roy,
I agree and disagree.
I agree with your policy
conclusion. One of my college professors asked my class what
problems could we envision if getting a parking ticket meant the death
penalty. Nobody, including me I hate to admit, knew the “best”
response he was looking for: If a parking attendant was about to
give a ticket, the driver would have significant incentive to kill the
attendant.
I disagree with your legal argument. It is the Supreme
Court’s role to determine whether a punishment qualifies as “cruel and
unusual” punishment. For it it be a state issue only, one also
would have to believe that the Eighth Amendment shouldn’t apply to the
states (maybe you do believe this).
Here’s an interesting Policy Review article
that I just ran across regarding the Court’s jurisprudence on the
meaning of cruel and unusual punishment. It is worth reading for
anyone interested in this issue.