Miller v R

Miller v R [1977] 2 SCR 680 is a leading Canadian Bill of Rights decision of the Supreme Court of Canada where the Criminal Code provisions relating to the death penalty were challenged as a violation of the right against "cruel and unusual" punishment under section 2(b) of the Bill of Rights.

Justice Laskin, for the majority, upheld the laws. He interpreted the phrase "cruel and unusual" in the context of its origin in the English Bill of Rights and the US Eighth Amendment, which only limited the means of carrying out a death sentence.

Some of the definition given to cruel and unusual punishments in this case later shaped the jurisprudence carried out under section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.