Cruelty

Cruelty is hardness of heart which makes one willing to inflict injurious or excessive punishment. It is a vice which directly opposes the virtue of clemency.

Cruelty differs from brutality or savagery in this:cruelty recognizes its victim as one truly deserving punishment andis excessive in inflicting it; savagery or brutality takes inhuman and even bestial delight in the torture it inflicts on a human being, regardless of the guilt or innocence of its victim.