Capital_Punishment

Capital Punishment Capital Punishment Throughout the history of the human race, people have been put to death as retribution for various forms of wrongdoing. Prior to the first criminal laws, these killings were acts of private retribution with no specific code for which crime would justify the infliction of death. The earliest set of recorded laws for capital punishment dates back to 1700BC in the city of Babylon. These laws were called the Hamurabe Code, which proclaimed the death penalty to be used for most crimes, including minor offenses like the fraudulent sale of beer (Flanders 5). Many other societies throughout ancient times implemented the same punishment for various crimes, and methods of execution have included such practices as crucifixion, stoning, drowning, and beheading. Egyptians, Athenians, and Romans were put to death for most offenses. One of the most prominent examples was when Jesus Christ was crucified under the laws of the Roman Empire. Widespread use of capital punishment changed very little throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period. During the reign of King Henry VIII in the first half of the sixteenth century in England, there where over 350 capital crimes resulting in over 70,000 executions capital, punishment, death, states, per, murder, rate, crimes, people, year, victims, laws, retribution, over, murderers, justice, executions, during, current, criminal, acts, 100000, violent, time, system, sentenced, protection, prior, penalty, own, one, moratorium, little, jan, 2002, 26, 1970's, york, times, statistics, show, same, rates, police, out, officers, offenses, new, killed, history