Capital_Punishment

Capital Punishment Capital Punishment Capital Punishment is the lawful procedure of the death penalty. Since ancient times ancient times it has been used to punish a variety of illegal offenses. The bible states that the death penalty should be used for such crimes as murder, kidnapping and also witchcraft, but it also states “Thou shalt not kill.” In the 1500’s in England, only in major crimes was the death penalty used. Crimes such as treason, murder, larceny, burglary, rape, and arson. By 1800 however, Parliament enacted many new capital offenses and hundreds of people were being sentenced to death every year. But by the 1750’s, Europe had already started to change and reform the idea of the death penalty. Such great thinkers as Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria, the French philosopher Voltaire, and the English law reformer Jeremy Bentham challenged the idea that the death penalty was justified. They stated that it was needlessly cruel, overrated as a deterrent, and sometimes ended up in fatal errors. Along with Quaker leaders they defended the idea of life in prison and said that it was a better alternative. (Encyclopedia Britannic 2002/ Britanica.com) In the 1850’s the reform started to take effect. In the United States the death death, penalty, people, states, murder, court, years, year, row, punishment, inmates, been, united, supreme, statistics, sentenced, innocent, executions, executed, crimes, convicted, until, two, times, stated, should, ruled, put, person, one, idea, europe, end, eighty-five, decide