In our case, the accuser petitions for a determination as to the existence of the alternative in the preamble to section 301A(7) - "special cruelty" - and that physical or mental abuse of the victim is not attributed to him at the time of the act.
When we come to pour content into the expression "special cruelty", and to examine what circumstances lead to the recognition of the act of killing as having an even higher standard than that of the basic crime of murder, which is also done with the intention of killing the victim, the starting point is that every murder, inherently, constitutes a cruel act. When is it a matter of "special cruelty"? It seems that at the core of the definition is the identification of a "special dimension that is not the property of all murder cases", and this will be done, in exceptional cases, which include "the use of violence at a particularly high level", in the words of the Supreme Court, in the Granot case. Hendel, paragraph 14).
The later, more recent case law emphasizes and focuses on the degree of physical or mental suffering caused to the victim from his point of view. See Criminal Appeal 1213/23 Mandepro v. M.I . (of April 7, 2025). In the judgment in the case of "Klasani" ( Criminal Appeal 7905/23, Maroun Klasani v. M.I., dated February 16, 2025), the Honorable Justice Y. Elron described the cases in which special cruelty will be recognized as an aggravating cause into three categories, one of which is inflicting excessive suffering on the victim, inter alia, "due to the use of the method of euthanasia that is conspicuous in its cruelty", and when it comes to "murder committed on a prolonged period of time and by means that exacerbate the victim's suffering" (paragraph 63). They were illustrated by a lengthy euthanasia procedure, such in court rulings that dealt with cases in which the victim was repeatedly injured by means of various objects, and in another case - he was beaten 19 times with a hammer. (It should be noted that the determination of the "guidelines" for special cruelty was not the rationale of the "Kalsani" ruling, since there was another aggravating circumstance, according to the three members of the panel, however, Justice G. Kanfi-Steinitz joined the comments of Justice Elron Landon, while Justice R. Ronen preferred not to put any nails in it.)