Capital Punishment The Death Penalty - 2384 Words

Capital Punishment Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the utmost form of punishment in the United States. It is the method of punishment by execution legally given to a criminal convicted of a crime. Capital punishment originated from many early societies, it is only imposed on people who have committed very serious crimes, and only five different execution types are currently used in the United States. The death penalty has been around for a while. The first death penalty laws date back to the eighteenth century with the Code of Hammurabi. In the Code of Hammurabi, there were up to twenty-five different crimes people could have been executed for (10). Surprisingly, people living during that time would not†¦show more content†¦By the seventh century there were over two hundred crimes that people could have been executed for, which included cutting down a tree, robbing a rabbit warren, and stealing (10). The United States got its use of the death pe nalty from Britain (16). When the Europeans came to the United States, they brought the practice of capital punishment with them (16). In 1602, Captain George Kendall was the first person executed in the United States in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia because he was caught spying for Spain (16). In 1612, the governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale, passed the Moral and Martial laws, which stated that the death penalty could be given to anyone found stealing grapes, killing chickens, or trading goods with the Indians (16). Colonies in New York, Massachusetts, and North Carolina also used the death penalty. In 1655, a colony in New York put the Duke’s Laws into place (19). These laws made it legal for colonist to be executed for not believing in God, kidnapping, conspiracy, and disobeying their king or ruler (19). During the eighteenth century, Massachusetts only recognized seven crimes that could punishable by death (19). These crimes included sodomy, buggery, murder, burglary , rape, arson, and treason (19). Colonist in North Carolina could have been executed for hiding a slave with the intention of letting him go free, stealing bank notes, bestiality, and