Capital Punishment Is The Most Severe Form Of All Sentencing

European colonists came to the America, they brought the tradition of capital punishment. Capital punishment came on North American shore with the British colonies. The first recorded capital punishment was established in the new colonies that execution was the Captain George Kendall in Jamestown colony in Virginal Unite State in 1608. First hanging execution to Kendall for being a spy for Spain. British law

Capital punishment in America developed as a result of the influence of the British when they settled in America. They brought with them the laws that include capital punishment. The earliest form of death penalty ever recorded was that of Captain Georg Kendall in the year 1608 in Jamestown Colony, Virginia. Kendall’s execution was attributed to his being a spy of Spain. Captain Georg Kendall was a member of the first council that was appointed in Jamestown in Virginia colony. In that year, he was executed by a firing squad making him the first person to have ever been sentenced to death in the United states.

The death penalty is the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime (law.cornell.edu, 2015). The first Congress of the United States authorized the federal death penalty on June 25, 1790 (deathpenalty.org, 2011). The death penalty can also be referred to as capital punishment, however capital punishment also includes a sentence to life in prison, as opposed to strictly executions. A convict can be sentenced to death by various methods including lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, firing squad, and hanging. After the death penalty was established, many debates have arisen arguing that these methods violate several of the United States’ Amendments. Select cases have been accused of violating the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. It is important to note that the judiciary goes through a series of processes prior to deciding a sentence for a capital crime. Many factors influencing the verdict include proportional analysis, individualized sentencing, method of execution, and classes of people not eligible of the death penalty. This paper will discuss brief descriptions of the methods used for executions, economical issues, the Supreme Court’s opinion regarding the death penalty, as well as important factors that make up the proportional analysis, individual sentencing process, method used, and determining classes of people who are not eligible for the death penalty.

Many believe the death penalty has recently been discovered; although, it originated in the B.C. era. For example, the earliest forms of government had introduced the death penalty for those who had committed large offences. One researcher writes, “Death Penalty laws can be traced back as far as the 18th century B.C. when the Code of King Hammurabi established death as the penalty for 25 different crimes” (“Capital Punishment Timeline”). He claims the death penalty started before anyone would have thought; it had been used during the B.C. era. Hammurabi used this as the highest punishment for the most offensive crimes one could commit. Hammurabi had first developed the idea of an “eye for an eye,” meaning if one commits a horrific crime then the same horrific crime shall be done to him. Although it began in B.C. era, criminal punishment is still used today. Some of the most

Judge Arthur Alarcon and Prof. Paula Mitchell of California have recently done a study on capital punishment and the cost that it has had on the state of California. Their findings may shock some, California has spent $4 billion in the past thirty years to up keep the death penalty, and the average capital trial cost $1 million more than non-capital trials (Alarcon & Mitchell, 2011). Capital punishment is a legal process where the punishment for a crime is death. This is a concept that has been around for a long time. One of the earliest written documents that support capital punishment is Hammurabi’s Code with the theory of “an eye for an eye” (Mark, 2011). The topic of capital punishment has become a very controversial one in the past couple decades. Many people are against it, saying that it is a “cruel and unusual punishment” and those for it fight say what a great deterrence it can be. While capital punishment may have had a purpose in the past, in our modern society I believe it should be an obsolete practice.

“The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The real question of capital punishment in this country is, Do we deserve to kill?” In 1607 the British left the United Kingdom to the new world now known as the United States. When the British went to the United States they brought over the death penalty with them. When the British came to the United States there had been some spies that followed them from the European countries. They ended up finding a guy named Kendall who was a spy from spain. The first execution occurred in Virginia where they executed Kendall. After the first execution, it became a regular thing in the new world. People were executed for stealing grapes, trading with the Indians and killing chickens.

When European colonists came to the America, they brought the tradition of capital punishment. Capital punishment came on the North American shore with the British colonies. The first recorded case of capital punishment was established in the new colonies. Captain George Kendall was first executed in 1608 in the Jamestown colony of Virginal Unite State. First execution was by hanging to the

The earliest reported execution in the new colonies was Captain George Kendall from Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608 because he was a spy for Spain. In 1612, Virginia Governor, Sir Thomas Dale signed the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws with the death penalty. The death penalty applied for the simplest offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indians. The regulations of the capital punishment diversified from one colony to the next. (Randa, 1997)

Over the course of human history the earliest known concept of capital punishment has been around since the 18th Century BCE, where the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for twenty five different crimes (Reggio, 2015). From the 18th Century until now there have been many other societies that have used capital punishment for various crimes, such as the Hittite Code, Draconian Code of Athens, and also Roman law. Those different cultures used different methods for execution and followed different rules for people of different race, religion, creed, social status, etc. As history progressed, capital punishment itself has gone through many changes; the ways of execution have evolved from brutal and torturous methods such as burning at the stake, burying alive, bludgeoning to death, impalement,

Capital punishment used to be a routine universal practice. The torrid history surrounding executions dates back thousands of years and includes the majority of civilizations around the world. Throughout history, the death penalty has been utilized as a tool to manage society. Hammurabi, a successful Babylonian king, established what many scholars thought to be the first code of laws. Charles F. Horne, author of “The Code of Hammurabi,” explains: “The code . . . regulates in clear and definite strokes the organization of society” and these “grim retaliatory punishments take no note of excuses or explanations, but only of the fact” (Horne Online). Obviously, Hammurabi was aware of the advantages of capital punishment and eagerly supports it! Furthermore, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, “In 1612, Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, which provided the death penalty for even minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indians” (DPIC Online). While capital punishment is clearly unnecessary for such trivial delinquencies, it is evident that this practice has been widely employed and passed down through the ages.

As far back as the antiquated laws of China, capital punishment has been built up as a discipline for unlawful acts. In the 18th Century BC, the Code of Lord Hammurabi of Babylon classified capital punishment for a quarter century unlawful acts, albeit homicide was not one of them. The primary capital punishment generally recorded happened in 16th Century BC Egypt where the wrongdoer, an individual from honorability, was blamed for enchantment, and requested to take his own particular life. Amid this period non-respectability was generally slaughtered with a

The controversy surrounding capital punishment goes back for thousands of years. As far back as the 18th Century BC, the Code of King Hammurabi codified the death penalty for 25 specific crimes (Reggio). Since that time, every generation has dealt with passionate arguments on both sides of the issue and ours is no exception. Despite being liberal in most of my views, I am a supporter of capital punishment in cases of heinous crimes. In order to reflect on an opposing view, I settled on the following Time magazine article to read, consider and evaluate: “The Death of the Death Penalty” by David Von Drehle.

The death penalty has been used from ancient times and to the present day. In earlier centuries, use of the death penalty was accepted and used more often. No justifiability or proper use of the death penalty was questioned because the belief of “an eye for an eye” was taken into account. They used fear as a tactic to deter people from

Britain influenced America's use of the death penalty more than any other country did. The first recorded execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain. In 1612,Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, which provided the death penalty for even minor offences such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indians.

The earliest historical record of the death penalty otherwise known as capital punishment goes back as far as the eighteenth century B.C., when the code of King Hammurabi of Babylon listed 25 crimes which were punishable by death. Since then, the uses of the death penalty have prevailed throughout the ages in laws and justice systems of different civilizations. For instance, the Draconian Code of Athens punishes all crimes with the death penalty. During those times, the death penalty involved suffering a gruesome death such as being burnt alive, impaling, crucifixion and stoning (Death Penalty Information Center, 2011).