Lecture 1 Early Civilizations and the Death Penalty Early Civilizations Death Penalty Tribal Justice was often based on lex talionis We still don t know where the death penalty came from exactly o It s origins are lost in antiquity Tribal society had no organized systems like we have today o The family was more in charge of dealing with punishment Ex Hatfield and McCoy s family killing family Tribes also participated in restitution o In which they tried to restore the victim and make them whole again o Financial payment replacing worker caring for family of victim Sumer located in present day Iran Saudi Arabia Earliest Laws Traced back to Sumerians 4000 years ago Urukagina s Code 2380 2360 BC Perhaps the first written laws Death and murder were not mentioned Polyandry woman married to more than one man stated her crime Urukagina was perhaps the first liberal o Abolished custom and said women should be stoned with rocks that o Limited power of priests landowners o Exempted orphans widows from taxes o City paid the funeral price for the poor o Decreed rich couldn t take property from poor just because Though we haven t found the document itself it has appeared in other First Code Recovered Code of Ur Nammu 2100 2050 BC Calls for murder death penalty among other things supposedly 57 laws o If a woman is betrothed and deflowered by another man that man sources must die Ordeal by water when court couldn t decide they would throw guilty into river water If they got out they were innocent If they drowned they were guilty Was not an eye for an eye was an eye for money Code of Eshnunna 1920 BC Death penalty mentioned murder not The wealthy powerful didn t trust commoners to make laws so they would begin the laws with a Preamble stating that the gods thought it should be this way 60 property regulations laid down by God transmitted through king o If you re in the field at night you re killed If during the day you pay a fine perceived threat at night Code of Hammurabi 1728 1686 BC Most complete code but not the earliest Goal to cause justice to prevail destroy wicked prevent strong from oppressing further welfare of people More than just a set of laws was a liberal attempt to rule o Used as instruction manual handbook of family duties regulations on wages prices code of ethics for officials o 5 major forms of punishment 1 Fines 2 Death 3 Mutilation 4 Branding 5 Exile Banishment Death Penalty else o Can t be a false witness o Can t take slave outside city gates don t want to sell it somewhere o Burglary and robbery o If man s wife surprised by another man in flagrante delicto both tied and thrown in water husband may pardon wife and king may pardon slaves Infidelity between free and slaves What we know from these codes o Infidelity obviously is not a new thing o There is not a mention of a husband s infidelity o Some of the infidelity must have involved masters and slaves o Unusual pardon powers husband pardons wife and king pardons slaves This code uses 1 Lex talionis an eye for an eye 2 3 Tier Structure who you harm deems the extent of punishment 3 Sympathetic Punishment someone else gets punished if offender can t be such as a son 4 Victim Compensation Code 23 5 Mens Rea Code 206 Code of Hittites 1750 1180 BC Death penalty used less often but still had it back to restitution o 3 death penalty crimes demonstrates 4 tier class structure Oppose king house shall become ruin whole family killed and house destroyed Oppose judgment of lord decapitated Slave rise against master go into a pit Penalty for Murder o Bring this one and give certain number of people and allow them to his home Replacing the lost worker persons Compensating victim not punishing the offender Emphasis on sexual behavior crimes o Depending on setting depends who dies Woman raped in field man s fault Woman raped in house her fault Mosaic Draconian Codes Mosaic Code 1250 BC 10 commandments style Draconian 621 BC essentially every crime is a death penalty o The harshest of all the codes thus far o Lasted 6 8 years then abolished Gregorian Code 130 290 AD Justinian Code Roman 12 Tables 529 565 AD Death Penalty in Britain No death penalty unless in war Bloody Code time during which practically anything could get you the death sentence o Felling tree damage fishpond associate with gypsies steal rabbits Use of death penalty began to fall o Jury nullification if they come to a conclusion that seems too harsh for the crime committed jury can be overruled o Simply because prisoner colonies began to appear prisons Lecture 2 Death Penalty in the Early United States Introduction Most traditions brought from Europe including death penalty o We do things we know Colonies were similar in many ways but differed in terms of death penalty o Quakers no death penalty o Lasted 45 years from 1646 1692 Pennsylvania only for murder and treason o William Penn as influence Massachusetts for 12 crimes o Influenced by scriptures murder manslaughter poison perjury conspiracy man stealing witchcraft idolatry blasphemy sodomy bestiality adultery Virginia for most crimes o Not as many religious sexual but lost of minor property crimes o Tobacco industry Most colonies similar to Massachusetts 10 15 crimes 1st Execution Captain George Kendall 1608 first person executed in Early America o Espionage or mutiny not an ordinary criminal o Shot rather than hung South Carolina and Virginia death penalty crimes only related to slaves Decrease in crimes in North increase in crimes in south property and slave o Things that aren t crimes for free people were for slaves 17th Century Executions in the Colonies Executions were rare 162 from 1607 1699 o 40 murder 25 witchcraft 15 piracy 20 other o 88 hung 10 shot one burned and one pressed No extreme cruelty used in US such as beheading Hanging was most common 17th Century Executions for Witchcraft 34 executions between 1647 1692 majority women o Connecticut Massachusetts Salem witch trials hung not burned at stake Last executions because no longer a death penalty offense in 1693 crime in which more women have ban executed than men Only 17th Century Executions for Sex Crimes Not enforced as strictly 2 killed for adultery 10 for sodomy buggery bestiality 8 for rape o All white victims Defendants were Black Native American and White 18th Century Increase in Executions Number of executions increasing as population increased but the rate of executions was decreasing at the same time Execution of Women in Colonies 17th and
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