excessiveness – The most important factor of public punishment was the excessiveness that was employed whenever the punishment was enacted. “excess of violence emploiyed is one of the elements of its glory: the fact that the guilty man should moan and cry out under the blows is not a shameful side effect it is the very ceremonial of justice being expressed in all its force. Justice pursues the body beyond all possible pain.” ” In the ‘excesses’ of torture, a whole econonmy of power is invested.” Power is also at stake in the process of public execution and torture. The goal of these actions taken against a person was for those in position to rule over the citizens of a society to maintain that autonomous rule by exerting extra force on those who disobeyed their laws and commandments.
confession – The ultimate goal of the penal system is the confession or admittance of guilt for a crime. In most cases it is held that a confession means the truth has been told and the true guilty party has taken repsonsibility for the crime. “Through it the accused committed himslef to the procedure; he signed the truth of the preliminary investigation.” Torture is a way to get preople to fess up although strong enough men may be able to withstand it and maintain silence while weaker men will readily confess to crimes they haven’t committed.
demonstration – The scaffold was used “It was the task of the guilty man to bear openly his condemnation and the truth of the crime he had committed.” “A successful public execution justified justice, in that it published the truth of the crime in the very body of the man to be executed.” “in torture, pain, confrontation and truth were bound together…”