Death Penalty
The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for twenty-five different crimes. The death penalty was also part of the Fourteenth Century B.C.'s Hittite Code; in the Seventh Century B.C.'s Draconian Code of Athens, which made death the only punishment for all crimes; and in the Fifth Century B.C.'s Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets. Death sentences were carried out by such means as crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. In the Tenth Century A.D., hanging became the usual method of execution in Britain. In the following century, William the Conqueror would not allow persons to be hanged or otherwise executed for any crime, except in times of war. This trend would not last, for in the Sixteenth Century, under the reign of Henry VIII, as many as 72,000 people are estimated to have been executed. Some common methods of execution at that time were boiling, burning at the stake, hanging, beheading, and drawing and quartering. Executions were carried out for such capital offenses as marrying a Jew, not confessing to a crime, and treason (Bedau 3).
If the veins are hard to reach, minor surgery might be necessary to find a deeper vein. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain. The prisoner dies as a result of blood loss caused by rupture of the heart or a large blood vessel, or tearing of the lungs. Because of the severity of the death penalty, many juries would not convict defendants if the offense were not serious. The prisoner is secured on a gurney with lined ankle and wrist restraints. The first jolt is followed by several more in a lower voltage. Since 1976, 406 prisoners have died by lethal injection in the United States. pital crimes in Britain continued to rise throughout the next two centuries. Some states made more crimes capital offenses, especially for offenses committed by slaves. If this process were not done, the undertaker or anyone handling the body would be killed. In an execution using lethal gas, the prisoner is restrained and sealed in an airtight chamber. Finally, Potassium Chloride is injected, stopping the heart (Vila and Morris 283). Throughout the 1500 and 1600's, witch trials became common throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, Scotland, and Spain during the Inquisition. In 1838, in an effort to make the death penalty more palatable to the public, some states began passing laws against mandatory death sentencing, instead, enacting discretionary death penalty statutes. Later, Rhode Island and Wisconsin abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
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Acceptance Essays
