Death Penalty

Death Penalty

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the infliction of death upon a person by judicial process as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from Latin capitalis, literally "regarding the head" (Latin caput). Hence, a capital crime was originally one punished by the severing of the head from the body.

Capital punishment has in the past been practiced in virtually every society, although currently only 58 nations actively practice it, with 95 countries abolishing it (the remainder having not used it for 10 years or allowing it only in exceptional circumstances such as wartime).It is a matter of active controversy in various countries and states, and positions can vary within a single political ideology or cultural region. In the European Union member states, Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment.

Today, most countries are considered by Amnesty International as abolitionist. Amnesty International allowed a vote on a nonbinding resolution to the UN to promote the abolition of the death penalty. However, over 60% of the world's population live in countries where executions take place, insofar as the four most populous countries in the world (the People's Republic of China, India, United States and Indonesia) apply the death penalty. All of them voted against the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly in 2008.

History

Execution of criminals and political opponents has been used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime and to suppress political dissent. In most places that practice capital punishment it is reserved for murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries sexual crimes, such as rape, adultery, incest and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as...