History of Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. The execution of people who commit crimes has been carried out throughout nearly all civilizations throughout history. The most historical records of tribes and civilizations indicate that they almost all carried out the law of the death penalty (Capital punishment). The earliest established record of Capital punishment dates to the 18th century BC, beginning with Hammurabi’s code, consisting of 25 different crimes resulting in the death penalty. Then, Athens in the seventh century, take it upon themselves to make the death penalty punishable for all crimes. The death penalty in Europe and prominently in Roman law through the 7th to 4th century BC, was carried out in several different ways such as crucifixion, drowning, burning, beating to death and impalement. Britain has a large history in commercializing and abusing capital punishment, they are also seen as perfect examples for future civilizations to follow. In Britain in the 10th century AD, the usual method of execution was hanging. Then along came the 6th century, and possibly the most famous leader of executions, Henry the VIII, who will be expanded upon further along.
Britain was the main influence for America developing the death penalty. When settlers voyaged to the new world, the British colonists brought the law of Capital punishment with them. When the colonists had settled, the first execution in America, was Captain George Kendall, for being a spy in Spain. As the American colonies began to develop, many of their laws varied on capital punishment. In Virginia 1612, the governor enacted the death penalty even for minor crimes. In Massachusetts, they didn’t conduct their first execution until 1630. While in New York, Crimes like hitting one’s mother or father, or denying true god, were punishable by death as of 1665. Throughout years and years of executions, all these had been conducted in the public eye, some as sort of a celebration, bringing evil to an end. Until 1834, when Pennsylvania is the fist state to move all executions to be conducted inside correctional facilities, and not to the public eye. Then things began to take a drastic change in 1846, Michigan is the first state to completely abolish capital punishment for all crimes, except for treason. From then on, many states began to drop the death penalty, but many also held on and carried it out. In a span of 10 years (1907-1917), a total of six states completely outlawed the death penalty as it was viewed as cruel by many. And by 1950, many more states had abolished or limited the death penalty. In 1950, the execution rate was 1289 per year, and in 1976 took a drastic drop to 191 executions. By 1972, the Supreme court ruled that the death penalty will not be punishable for 40 different crimes, resulting in the cancellation of 629 inmates’ executions. In 1976, things went down hill when the death penalty was completely reinstated. This has stayed this way 43 years now in 29 different U.S states.
Henry VIII
Henry the VIII was King of England from 1509-1547, 37 years of power over all of England, and he took major advantage of his power. Henry VIII Succeeded his father for the throne and did not take a liking to any rivals to the throne and began executing anyone he saw as a threat to the throne as soon as he took power. Henry only went on from there. Henry VIII is said to of ordered anywhere from 57 to 72 000 people to be executed, one of the largest death penalty rates in history. Those who chose to go against the king and choose not to succumb to his laws and act, would be executed. Henry VIII is the largest mogul and conductor of Capital punishment throughout all of history.
By: Adam Bergen
Capital Punishment 