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In order to determine whether the death penalty is to be considered cruel and unusual punishment, it is necessary to first define each word in order to get full understanding of the issue being assessed. According to the Merriam-Webster collegiate dictionary, cruel is defined as: "disposed to inflict pain or suffering devoid of humane feelings." Unusual is defined as: "not usual, uncommon, or rare." Punishment is defined as: "suffering pain or loss that serves as …

…it would be safe to say this punishment is uncommon.The death penalty should not be carried out in any case. Some look at it as an eye for an eye, but as Mahatma Gandhi once said, "An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind." As we head into the next millennium, it is time we modernize our punishments of criminals just as we have modernized every other aspect of our lives.