What is cruel and unusual punishment? When we think about “just” punishments we think of punishments that fit the crime that has been committed. You steal a candy bar, you must pay a fine. In the case of white bear though, the punishment literally fit the crime. This woman and her boyfriend kidnapped a young girl. The boyfriend tortured the young girl for weeks before finally killing her by burning her in a sleeping bag. What did the girlfriend do? She watched and recorded every gruesome detail as if it were entertaining. The couple was eventually arrested and the boyfriend killed himself in prison. The girlfriend, though, was not quite so fortunate.

Instead she went to White Bear park where she was forced every day to live through a horrendous experience. Every day she wakes up not knowing who she is or where she is, and she is chased throughout the city by hunters who are trying to kill her. She constantly asks from help from onlookers but to her dismay, none of them even so much as mutter a word. They just watch her as she struggles and deals with her apparent confusion. At the end of each day, she is recaptured, reminded of her crimes, and put on display so that all the onlookers can show their disgust for her and her late boyfriend. Then a device is placed around her temples, and she forgets everything just in time to start it all over again the next day.

Many would argue that the punishment is fitting to the crime. She watched a little girl be tortured so it is only right that all of these onlookers watch her as she struggles day after day. This though, in my opinion at least, is not actually a true exhibition of the punishment fitting the crime. I do believe that there are punishments worse than the ultimate punishment, death. Her boyfriend even escaped by taking his own life. He chose the lesser punishment. Meanwhile, she is left living day after day through an experience that makes death look like time out by comparison. I am in no way shape or form pleading the case for her to just be killed or even for her to suffer a less severe punishment. It is my intention to only show that the punishment is not equal to the crime. Every single day she lives through an experience that many would rather be dead than go through, and at the end of it all, her memories are erased and she has to do it all over again. Even with the crime that she committed, is this not considered if nothing else, cruel?. She begs for death, but her captors deny her, erase her memory, and put her through the torture all over again. So I ask you all. What is worse, her crime or her punishment?