Origins Of Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment, often referred to as the death penalty, has been used as a method of crime deterrence since the very earliest societies were established throughout the world. Historical records show that even the most ancient primitive tribes utilized methods of punishing wrongdoers, including taking their lives to pay for the crimes they committed. The most common deed that warrants this ultimate form of punishment is murder. A life for a life has been one of the most basic concepts for dealing with crime since the start of recorded history.

As tribes began to develop into social classes and humankind created their own self governed republics, capital punishment became an even more common response to a variety of crimes, such as sexual assault, treason, and various military offenses. Written rules were created to notify the people of early nations about the penalties they would face for participating in any of these misdeeds. One of the earliest written documents that supported the death penalty was the Code of Hammurabi, which was written on stone tablets around 1760 BC. It contained 282 laws that were collected by the Babylonian King Hammurabi, including the theory of an "eye for an eye." Several other ancient documents supported capital punishment, including the Jewish Torah, Christian Old Testament, and the writings of an Athenian legislator named Draco who proposed the death penalty for a large variety of misdeeds in ancient Greece.

Early forms of capital punishment were designed to be slow, painful, and torturous. In some ancient cultures law breakers were put to death by stoning, crucifixion, being burned at the stake, and even slowly crushed by elephants. Later societies would find these methods to be cruel and unusual forms of punishment, and sought out more humane practices. During the 18th and 19th centuries, faster and less painful approaches to the death penalty were employed, such as hangings and beheadings using the guillotine. While these were violent and bloody practices that were often large public spectacles, the end result was usually instantaneous and therefore seen as more compassionate.

In the United States, capital punishment has existed since the founding of the original colonies, and was utilized for a large number of crimes including, burglary, murder, treason, counterfeiting, and arson. Lynch mobs were often formed to bring the accused to justice in an attempt to punish the law breaker and scare other people away from committing any crime. Law makers in the U.S. began to review and revise policies behind the death penalty around the time of the American Revolution. In 1791, The Constitution was amended for the eighth time to prohibit any form of punishment that was considered to be "cruel and unusual." This was not an attempt to ban capital punishment, but it did begin a movement towards carrying out more humane executions. By the 1800's, the electric chair had been introduced to accomplish this goal and later the concept of lethal injections was developed.

Over time, the death penalty became even more controversial throughout the world. Opponents to the practice declared it to be inhumane and unfair, and believed that no life should be taken regardless of any crime that had been committed. The advent of DNA testing was able to show that a few people who had been sentenced to death were actually innocent, so the argument that no one should be executed to avoid killing an innocent individual grew. Several states in the U.S. no longer support the death penalty, and many countries have abolished the practice completely.

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