Punishment
One of the criteria for a judgement of "murder in the first degree" in the laws of the State of New York is that:
...the defendant acted in an especially cruel and wanton manner pursuant to a course of conduct intended to inflict and inflicting torture upon the victim prior to the victim's death. As used in this subparagraph, "torture" means the intentional and depraved infliction of extreme physical pain; "depraved" means the defendant relished the infliction of extreme physical pain upon the victim evidencing debasement or perversion or that the defendant evidenced a sense of pleasure in the infliction of extreme physical pain...Similar positions are taken in the laws of Italy, Germany and Norway and others (see, Country-specific murder law).
Read more about this topic: Torture Murder
Famous quotes containing the word punishment:
“If we could do away with death, we wouldn’t object; to do away with capital punishment will be more difficult. Were that to happen, we would reinstate it from time to time.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“What children learn from punishment is that might makes right. When they are old and strong enough, they will try to get their own back; thus many children punish their parents by acting in ways distressing to them.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)
“The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.”
—Plato (428–347 B.C.)