The Death Penalty

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.

In the present day of America the death penalty has diminished greatly in its use to a point where it is almost never used in most states and most other countries accept a select bunch, have also adhered to this same philosophy. (deathpenaltyinfo.org)

The death penalty was first developed in the Eighteenth Century B.C. by King Hammurabi who mentioned death as a punishment over 20 times. In Britain around the Tenth Century A.D., the method of hanging was extremely common. Other methods developed over time such as boiling, beheading, burning at the stake and quartering. In order to be ‘executed’ the criminals would commit capital offenses such as not being honest to a law officer or treason. As time passed, the amount of criminals executed grew larger every year and the government in England knew something had to change. Therefore, the death penalty was reduced by about 45%. The first usage of the death penalty recorded in America was the death of Captain George Kendall in 1608. He was caught as a spy for Spain which lead to his violent death. In 1612, the Governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale began the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, which allowed the death penalty for multiple small crimes. The death penalty became inactive in the early

he death sentence has been around for all most all of our counties history starting with hangings and execution style deaths. The Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments stand behind the death penalty in the United States until the 1960’s when people started challenging the basic legal standards if the death penalty is correct. People started seeing the death penalty as a form cruel and unusual punishment and a way of it keeping our country in the “older times” During the mid-Nineteenth Century a movement called the Abolitionist Movement started to gain the county attention (especially in the Northeast) and the death penalty started to move out of the public eye and into correctional facilities. Pennsylvania being the first state to do so in 1834. Some of the first states to abolish the death penalty were

The death penalty is a legal punishment practiced worldwide, which includes execution being the punishment, mandated to someone convicted of a crime. The death penalty has existed since 1700 B.C. when the Code of Hammurabi was a legal document in ancient Babylonia. Ever since the Code of Hammurabi many countries have adopted this punishment including the United States. When European settlers came to America, Americans obtained the death penalty. During the establishment of the Constitution, framers continued the custom which led to the eighth amendment. “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury…; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb… nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” (Constitution 1).

“The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes.” Capital punishment has been used as a form of justice in the United States for nearly four centuries. It was first used by Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia

Some people believe that the death penalty should be abolished and some believe that it should be used more frequently. The use of the death penalty as punishment varies from state to state. Capital punishment is established in thirty-one states; however, nineteen of the fifty states do not

The death penalty was first introduced into the criminal justice system in 1622. Since then, this capital offense has taken many strides in the system. The first execution, done in 1622, was given to a man on an offense of a theft. Now, the death penalty is only imposed on certain cases of murder, treason and in just a

Currently 31 states have the death penalty which are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. The other 19 states that don’t have the death penalty are Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia does not have capital punishment either. Texas has the largest number of executions (549), followed by Virginia (113), and Oklahoma not too far behind

In the nineteenth century many states began to abolish the death penalty for most crimes except murder and treason. States where statutes had been passed that made the punishment of death penalty mandatory regardless of the circumstances began to enact discretionary death penalty statutes. By 1963, nearly all mandatory capital punishment laws had been eliminated.

The law as old as time. The death penalty has been around as long as any historian can remember. Actually the oldest recorded law, Code of Hammurabi, had its own version of the death penalty. The Code of Hammurabi had 25 laws that were punishable by death. Jump forward over 1700

The Death Penalty has been used in the United States since the very foundation of our nation; the first recorded case was the execution of Captain George Kendall in 1608 in the Jamestown colony as it was believed Kendall was a spy (DPIC). Americans have seen executions throughout history and are somewhat exposed to the idea but the 21st century is a very different place than the 17th century. This century is a time of equality and rights for people of all

From the time that America was first colonized, the death penalty has been a punishment carried out in our country (Part I: History of the Death Penalty). Many viewed it as an integral part of

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).

The issue of the death penalty has been of great concern and debate for a number of years now. Prior to 1976, the death penalty was banned in the United States. In 1976, though, the ban was lifted, and many states adopted the death penalty in their constitutions. Currently, there are 38 states that use the death penalty, and only 12 states that do not. The states that have the death penalty use a number of ways to go about executing the defendant. Thirty-two states use lethal injection, 10 use electrocution, 6 use the gas chamber, 2 use hanging, and 2 states use a firing squad (Death Penalty Information Center, 1997). The 12 states that do not have the death penalty are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,