Capital Punishment
Capital Punishment, in law, the imposition of the death penalty for the commission of a crime. In countries that permit capital punishment, murder and treason are usually considered capital crimes (crimes for which the death sentence can be imposed). Other crimes for which the death penalty often has been specified in modern times include kidnapping, armed robbery, rape, air piracy, and espionage. Capital punishment for an offense may be either mandatory (required by the law to be applied upon conviction) or discretionary (left to the jury or the court to decide in passing sentence in individual cases). During the early times, stoning and crucifixion were used as methods of punishment. Since the 17th century, many countries followed shooting, often by firing squads, to mete out capital punishment. However today, the methods most commonly used to carry out the death sentence are electrocution, asphyxiation with gas, injection of lethal drugs, hanging, beheading, and shooting. The United States often leans towards the use of lethal injection which involves injecting drugs into a person to stop his breathing or heartbeat, as a form of punishment. Canada, Australia, and most European and Latin American countries have done away with capital punishment. However, the death sentence still prevails in about 60 countries like the United States; many African and Asian countries.
Capital punishment has been a controversial issue since the 18th century. Opponents of the death penalty have argued that it is a throwback to the barbarism of the past and also that it has no effect on reducing violent crime. People often do not see a place for capital punishment in the ideals of modern society. Many argue that, innocent people who may be wrongly implicated are given the death sentence. They have called for its abolition and replacement with life imprisonment. Supporters of capital punishment have held that it serves as a deterrent to serious criminality and that it is essential to public safety. There is, however, no empirical evidence to bolster this argument. A murderer should be punished with losing his or her own life, is the logic of its supporters.
Since ancient times, capital punishment has been part of criminal justice systems. The earliest known written provision was in the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, dated about 1750 B.C. Twenty-five crimes punishable by death were specified. In 399 B.C, Socrates, the Greek philosopher, was forced to drink hemlock, a poison the Athenians used for the death penalty.
Europe, from 5th century to 13th century, saw thousands of people executed, either by hanging or beheading for crimes against the state or the church. The Roman Theodosian Code of 438 A.D. listed more than 80 capital offenses. During the Middle Ages, mutilation of the offender was sometimes substituted for the death penalty. The French Revolution (1789-1799) resulted in about 4,000 death sentences by the revolutionary government. Guillotine, a beheading machine, was a popular method of execution in France during the Revolution. In United Kingdom in the late 18th century, capital punishment was attached to some 250 crimes. Prison systems were established in the 19th century and long-term incarceration became an important alternative to capital punishment. The United Kingdom finally abolished capital punishment in 1969.
Portugal was the first European country to abolish capital punishment, in 1867, and during the 20th century other European countries followed suit. Canada put a stop to this system in 1976. By 2000, almost all European countries had abolished capital punishment.
In the United States, many states abolished the death penalty during the mid 20th century. In 1972, 37 states still permitted the death penalty when the U.S. Supreme Court suspended further executions stating that the inconsistent and biased way the death penalty was being applied constituted “cruel and unusual punishment” in the ruling in Furman v. Georgia. The Court held that such ill-conceived practices violated the 8th and 14th amendments to the constitution. This inspired a general awareness against capital punishment. However, the court did not abolish capital punishment completely, rather it insisted on restricting such irrevocable punishment to certain crimes only, and maintaining fair standards in its implementation. Many states made new laws to conform to this argument.
In 1976 the Court heard a death-penalty case, Gregg v. Georgia, brought by Georgia after the state had rewritten its death-penalty laws to address the concerns raised by the 1972 ruling. Based on Georgia's rewritten law, the Court allowed the state to resume executions. Other states that had rewritten their laws in a similar manner, like Florida and Texas, were also allowed to reinstate the death penalty. Later in the same decade the Court ruled against laws that made death penalty mandatory for certain crimes; and abolished capital punishment for rape. Since 1976, hundreds of people have been executed in the U.S and thousands more imprisoned on death row. There are many such convicts awaiting the outcome of their legal appeals.
By 2000, 39 states had authorized capital punishment. Debate concerning the fairness of how it was being applied intensified in the late 20th century because a growing number of persons who had been sentenced to death were found to have been unjustly convicted. In June 2001, Timothy McVeigh became the first person executed by the federal government since 1963.
In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that only juries must decide sentences in capital punishment cases. Judges were stripped off such power. That same year, the court ruled against execution of mentally challenged people, which it deemed unconstitutional. In 2005, the court banned execution of minor offenders—those under 18 years of age when the crime was committed.
In the early 21st century, some U.S. states overhauled their capital punishment systems after it was attested that some prisoners on death row were actually innocent or had been tried unfairly. In 2001, Illinois declared a moratorium (temporary halt) on capital punishment while a commission reviewed the fairness of the system. The commission pointed at many flaws in the system, and Illinois continued its moratorium. Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted (reduced) the death sentences of all offenders on death row in the state in 2003. Life in prison without parole replaced most death sentences under his rule. 2007 marked the abolition of death penalty in New Jersey. By 2009 the number of states allowing the death penalty had dropped to 35.
In 2006, mishandling of the lethal injection by prison officers sparked a state wide furor in Florida. Governor Jeb Bush responded with a suspension of death penalty in the state. Bush appointed a commission to decide whether or not lethal injection goes against the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In 2006, a federal judge in California declared a halt in such executions to determine the constitutionality of lethal injections. In mid-2007, the suspension of capital punishment was lifted in Florida. Executions in the United States again suffered a jolt followed by a cessation in September 2007, after two Kentucky death-row inmates challenged the existing procedure of administering lethal injections. They argued against the procedure in the light of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However in April 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the current methods of lethal injection, which sparked resurgence in the practice of meting capital punishment.
As of now, more than 130 nations across the globe have stopped death penalty completely—either by abolition or stopping it usage. However, it still exists in many countries.