Death Penalty

The Death Penalty: Past,

Present and Future

Introduction

In the United States today the concept of the death penalty brings about a lot of arguments. There are those who are strongly opposed and those who are in favor of its use. For each side there are legitimate arguments, but the death penalty has been around for centuries and different tactics have been used throughout time. In today’s society there are states that still use capital punishment for offenders and in others it has been abolished.

In the Beginning

The use of the death penalty came back as far back as the Code of King Hammaurabi, when the penalty was used for 25 different crimes (DPIC, 2007). The tactics used included crucifixion, burning alive, and drowning to name a few. There were instances where women were burned like witches for committing certain crimes. Over time the methods that were used changed and there were fewer crimes that were punishable by death and in some countries the penalty given was determined by the social class of an individual.

The “death penalty remained in the largest part of the legal systems until the end of the Eighteenth Century, when the attempts to oppose it started to be many and important” (Thinkquest, 4). During this time those who were opposed to the use of the death penalty as punishment outnumbers those who were in favor. Because of the oppositions there came the first known abolishment of the death penalty. The abolishment came first overseas in Italy, but then soon followed in some of the western states. The states that took part in the abolishment turned to punishing criminals to life in prison. Despite the states and countries that were doing away with the death penalty there were still some that continued using it such as in Russia in the time of Lenin and Stalin (Thinkquest).

When the states began to take part in the abolishment of the death penalty many of them didn’t do away with it completely. The crimes that were punished by death changed...