Capital Punishment September 20 2015 Test 1 Study Guide Four major responses to crime throughout history Removal from the group Banishment incarceration or death Torture Financial loss Social degradation Early civilizations and the death penalty o Tribal justice Lex talionis Eye for eye tooth for tooth arm for arm life for life Restitution Making the victim whole Restorative justice o Earliest Laws or written rules Emperor Fuxi 2853 2738 BC Earliest death penalty laws came from china No documents but passed down through generations Urukaginas code 2380 BC 2360 BC Ruler Urukagina City state Lagash in Sumer modern day Iraq Death penalty is not mentioned in the code or the crime of murder Abolished polyandry multiple husbands o Woman should be stoned with rocks upon which her crime is written May have been one of the first liberals Established reforms to combat corruption o Cited as the first example of legal code Ur Nammu 2100 BC 2050 BC Earliest codes that have been recovered Also Sumerians King Ur Nammu Laws o Death penalty Married women who seduced other men into adultery men who raped virgin if she were married Men women who commit murder o Water ordeal Accused thrown into river if evidence in trial was inconclusive Drowned guilty survived innocent If man convicted of sorcery lives accuser had to pay Code of Eshnunna 1920 BC 60 property regulations Laws Code of Hammurabi o Man caught in crop during daytime 10 shekels o Man caught in house during daytime 10 shekels at night death night death o Capital offenses decided by the king o If a known broken wall falls and kills a man the owner is subject to a capital offense Jurisdiction of the king o CA 1728 1686 BC o Cause justice to prevail in the land destroy wicked and evil Prevent strong from suppressing the weak and to further the welfare of the people o Assigned death penalty to 25 crimes murder not one o 5 major forms of punishment in code Mutilation Branding Exile banishment Death Fines Impaling drowning burning o Property crimes Theft sentenced to death in some cases Burglary and robbery are death penalty offenses o Incest death penalty o Being a false witness or bringing false charges as most serious offense death penalty o lex talionis also used o Three tiered class structure Born free freed person slave o Sympathic punishment o Early example of victim compensation o Introduction of Mens rea Element of intent Code of the Hittites o 1750 1180 BCE o 3 death penalty crimes If anyone oppose the judgment of the king his house shall become a ruin Head cut off for opposing judgment of the lord Slave into pit if he rises against his master o Death penalty for murder o Emphasis on sexual behavior and sex crimes Intercourse with his own mother or daughter son death Man rape a woman in the mountain death Intercourse with cow pig dog death Rape in house woman shall die Horse or mule no punishment Ox spring upon man ox dies o More concerned with compensating victims than punishing criminals Mosaic draconian codes o Mosaic 10 commandments 1250 BC Found in Old Testament Torah but not written separately o Draconian Code 621 BC Athens Greece Called for death penalty for practically Death penalty in Britain AD every crime o 11th century William the conqueror prohibited death penalty except during war o 16th century 72 000 executions under Henry VIII o 18th century Bloody code 1789 as many as 350 capital crimes Felling a tree damaging a fishpond associating with gypsies stealing rabbits etc o 19th century capital crimes decreased to around 100 Death Penalty in the Early US o Executions saving souls Significant religious component Eye for eye General deterrent Reminder of the power of the state Humans inherently depraved victims of original sin Avoid eternal damnation must spend lives resisting urges by devil Capital punishment hastened a criminals effort to repent and expiated the community s collective guilt for past crimes Minister would visit condemned Death row inmates could attend church were often the topic of sermon Crime considered a failure of will As opposed to today where criminals are viewed as lacking the virtue of law abiding citizens Penitence is no longer a concern o Colonial period Most traditions practices from Europe Including death penalty Quakers South jersey No death penalty originally Pennsylvania Only for murder and treason Mass Bay colony 12 crimes Most colonies like mass laws Virginia For most crimes o 1st Executions in colonies Captain George Kendall 1608 Virginia Different than many cases Spy for Spain shot instead of hanged South Carolina Virginia death penalty only related to slaves o 17th century executions in the colonies Rare Only 162 from 1607 1699 Murder witchcraft piracy other crimes Mostly hanged some shot o Woman pressed for witchcraft arsonist burned Witchcraft 34 executions More females than males o Only crime that shows this trend 20 of 34 in mass bay colony 1692 o Salem witch trials Sex crimes 2 people in mass 1643 adultery Sodomy buggery bestiality 10 o All males Rape 8 o 18th century executions Increase in executions also an increase in population however 1 391 from 1700 1799 o Executions of women 9 of all executed were women in 17th 18th century 1st executed Jane champion 1632 Virginia colony o Murdering concealing death of her child o Hanged Salem witch trials 1692 o 14 women for witchcraft o Mass Bay colony o Hanged o Juvenile executions Thomas Graunger 1642 age 17 1st Bestiality Plymouth county Hanna Ocuish 1786 age 12 Youngest person non slave Murder of a 6 year old Apparent mental retardation Less than 1 17th 18th century March 1 2005 Supreme court ended practice of executing juveniles o Changes in D P in the US 17th early 20th centuries Increased and types of capital crimes reduced Local state jurisdictional control over executions Public private executions Degrees of murder developed Homicide someone killed by someone else not necessarily illegal Murder illegal Some states abolished death penalty Mandatory statutes discretionary statutes Use of death penalty declined 1950 Only 4 states w o capital punishment Today there are 19 states w o Use of death penalty declined between 1950 1973 o Death penalty from 1950 mid 1960s 1950s 1960s Horrors of WWII significantly dropped execution rates Drive to abolish Attributes to civil rights movement 1966 public favor of death penalty at an all time low o Methods of executions change over the years o 42 Early methods Extremely cruel Recent methods
View Full Document
Unlocking...