Brown vs Mississippi in 1936 said that confessions obtained under torture were not admissable in the US justice system. But to my knowledge it didn’t ban corporal punishment among adult criminals.
In the United States, judicial flogging was last used in 1952 in Delaware when a wife-beater got 20 lashes. In Delaware, the criminal code permitted floggings until 1972.[72][73][74] One of the major objections to judicial corporal punishment in the United States was that it was unpleasant to administer.[citation needed]
So it says it was last used in Delaware in 1952 and abolished in Delaware in 1972, but was there ever a federal law to abolish judicial corporal punishment?
I thought Nixon did prison reform in his administration, did he abolish corporal punishment?
When the Michael Fay caning was happening in Singapore in the 90s, I thought some state lawmakers were looking at reinstating corporal punishment. So is there a federal law banning it? Is it still legal in some states, even if its not used?
YMMV according to state. I suspect that it is like castration of prisoners in that it is still de jure legal but it would be (nearly?) impossible to find a crime for which it is not cruel and unusual punishment.
As far as federal law is concerned, there’s 18 USC 3551, which lists probation, fines and imprisonment as permissible sentences (and then there’s 18 USC 3591, which authorises the death penalty). So at the federal level, corporal punishment does not exist not because it is explicitly forbidden but rather because there is no provision allowing it. I suppose the situation is similar in most state systems.
It seems like judicial corporal punishment just fell out of fashion before any federal court ruled on it’s constitutionality. It would likely be considered cruel and unusual punishment by modern standards, but a jurisdiction would need to reinstate it for a case to work it’s way up to SCOTUS.
It seems to have been eradicated as far as sentencing in the US; but what about corporal punishment used for discipline in prisons and jails. Has that been universally banned?
I remember reading the biography of Carl Panzram, a serial killer executed in 1930. He details an endless list of corporal punishment (in actuality, torture) that was used against him in prison by the officers who ran the place.
It is still legal to sentence people to wear a sign like “I am a thief” in public. I don’t consider humiliation to be corporal punishment, but I bring it up because there is still an element of let the punishment fit the crime. So if a person is convicted of beating someone up, would 10 lashes be considered cruel and unusual? I don’t know and honestly I’m surprised there hasn’t been a judge that’s tried it.