A BrieF HistorY of CapitaL PunishmenT
Evidence of capital punishment can be found in the earliest historical records. This evidence was in the Code of Hammurabi (1750 BC). The Bible provided for execution for over thirty crimes, and the Draconian Code of ancient Greece imposed capital punishment for every offense. The Hebrew culture used the death penalty as a means of retaliation against criminals. The retaliation was intended to be proportional to the crime. "An eye for an eye" is the most common quotation associated with this principle. The law of the Talion limited the scope of retaliation. Mosaic law provided for strict procedures that must be followed before the death penalty could be instituted. Life at this time was sacred, but could be taken in exceptional circumstances. Later in Hebrew history, during the time of the New Testament, the mood of capital punishment shifted. The New Testament taught that people should forgive those who wrong them and not be so quick to judge others. Jesus Christ himself, the Bible says, was eventually put to death by being hung on a cross.
In Japan, during the Ninth century until 1156 AD, the death penalty was rarely, if ever, used. During this time the emperors were to approve every death sentence. During these three and a half centuries it was common practice for the emperor to deport the criminals to another land.
In what is now southern Romania, Vlad Draucul (better known as Dracula) ruled from 1431 to 1476. Vlad used capital punishment for several crimes. Impaling the guilty was one of his more favorite methods. The victims would be placed on large sharpened stakes. The victim would slowly slide down the stake, the sharpened end piercing his internal organs, until he died. Vlad particularly enjoyed witnessing mass executions; at times he even had a banquet set up in front of the dying victims.
The death penalty was used in Europe throughout history. It was not until the 18th Century that serious movements to abolish the death penalty were affected. Only recently many countries in Europe have abolished the death penalty. Italy rid itself of the death penalty after World War II, in 1947. Germany did the same in 1949, with the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany after World War II. France was one of the latest countries write the death penalty out of their laws. France did so in 1982, with the election of President Mitterrnad.
The death penalty was first used in the United States of America when Daniel Frank was put to death in 1622. He was convicted of theft in the Colony of Virginia. From that time on, capital punishment has almost always been a feature of the criminal justice system in the United States. Between 1930 and 1967, 3,859 people were put to death in the US. Many Supreme Court decisions in United States history that have ruled on various aspects of the death penalty. In 1972 the court ruled that capital punishment, as was then practiced in the U.S., was "cruel and unusual punishment," and therefore was unconstitutional. In 1976, after the federal government and 35 states had enacted new death-penalty laws, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment did not violate the Constitution. In 1977, Gary Gilmore was the first person to be executed after the reinstatement of capital punishment. He was executed by a firing squad for the crime of murder. In the same year, the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to sentence convicted rapists to the death penalty because the punishment was too severe for the crime. Today some 38 states in the United States have laws providing for the death penalty.