Actually, it was hanged, drawn and quartered: Hanged to the point of death, revived and hanged again. Often disemboweled and castrated. Then drawn by horse over cobblestone streets to the place where the four limbs were tied to horses that pulled limbs from the torso, thus “quartered.” One can only imagine the roaring crowd betting on which horse would get the torso.

But there is a bright spot in this sickening spectacle. Our Framers knew all too well the British punishment for treason against the crown and heresy, since the king was also the head of the Church of England: A two-fer. The Framers forbid “cruel and unusual punishment,” they separated church from state, they guaranteed freedom of speech and banned the “crime” of seditious liable – what we call today, “speaking truth to power.”