Capital punishment

[[Image:Death Penalty World Map.png|thumb|300px|Death Penalty World Map

Scope of use

Some jurisdictions still practicing capital punishment restrict its use to a small number of criminal offences, principally murder, treason and equated mortal sins such as apostasy.

Related Topics:
Murder - Treason - Apostasy

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Historically—and still today under certain systems of law—the death penalty was applied to a wider range of offences, including robbery or theft. It has also been frequently used by the military for crimes including looting, insubordination, and mutiny.

Related Topics:
Robbery - Theft - Looting - Insubordination - Mutiny

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History

In medieval Europe, the method of execution would depend on the social class of the condemned. The nobility would usually be executed in as painless and honorable a method as possible, generally with an axe (which occasionally gruesomely failed). Those in the working class, serfs, peasants, and possibly the bourgeoisie would usually be executed publicly, in a more gruesome and painful method of execution, typically by hanging or by the wheel. Specific crimes would sometimes warrant specific methods of execution: suspected witchcraft, religious heresy, atheism, or homosexuality would typically be punished by burning at the stake. Unsuccessful regicides generally merited a horrible death. A wide range of offences could be punished by death, including robbery and theft, even if nobody was physically harmed in the action.

Related Topics:
Social class - Serf - Bourgeoisie - Witchcraft - Heresy - Atheism - Homosexuality - Regicide

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Such methods of execution continued into the modern era. In 1757 in France, Robert-François Damiens suffered a horrible but customary execution for his attempted regicide against King Louis XV. His hand, holding the weapon used in the regicide attempt, was burnt, and his body was wounded in several places. Then, molten lead and other hot liquids were poured on the wounds. He was then drawn and quartered, and what remained of his body was burnt at the stake. Inhumane methods of execution and class inequalities were abolished during the French Revolution, which imposed the guillotine, seen as a painless and instantaneous method of execution, for all. However, during The Terror, other forms of execution, such as massed cannon fire and mass drownings, were also used.

Related Topics:
1757 - France - Robert-François Damiens - Regicide - Louis XV - Lead - French Revolution - Guillotine

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Although the death penalty was briefly banned in China between 747 and 759, the first country in the world to officially and permanently abolish the death penalty was the then-independent Granducato di Toscana (Tuscany). The Grand Duke Leopold II of Habsburg, famous enlightened monarch and future Emperor of Austria, was strongly influenced by the book of the Italian Cesare Beccaria Dei Delitti e Delle Pene ("On Crimes and Punishments"), published in 1764. In this book Beccaria aimed to demonstrate not only the injustice, but even the futility from the point of view of social welfare, torture and the death penalty. On 30 November 1786, after having de facto blocked capital executions (the last was in 1769), Leopold promulgated the Reform of the penal code that abrogated the death penalty and gave the order to destroy all the instruments for capital execution wherever in his land. In the year 2000 Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to commemorate the event.

Related Topics:
Tuscany - Grand Duke Leopold II - Enlightened monarch - Austria - Italian - Cesare Beccaria - 1764 - Social welfare - Torture - 30 November - 1786 - 1769 - Penal code - 2000

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Public executions in early New England were a very solemn and sorrowful occasion, sometimes attended by large crowds, who would also listen to a gospel message and remarks by local preachers and politicians, before or after the hanging. The Connecticut Courant records one such public execution on December 1, 1803, saying "The assembly conducted through the whole in a very orderly and solemn manner, so much so, as to occasion an observing gentleman aquainted with other countries as well as this, to say that such an assembly, so decent and solemn, could not be collected anywhere but in New England".

Related Topics:
New England - December 1 - 1803

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Around the present world

According to Amnesty International's annual report on official judicial execution, in 2004 there were 3,797 executions in 25 countries. Nine out of every ten executions took place in the People's Republic of China (PRC) which carried out at least 3,400 executions. From 1990 to 2003, the average number of executions per year was 2,242 as reported by Amnesty. The PRC has executed at least 20,000 people between 1990 and 2001, with 1,781 people executed between April and July 2001 in a "Strike Hard" crime crackdown. The higher total in 2004 resulted from a change in Amnesty's method of estimating executions in China. Both methodologies are suspected of yielding low results. (See Capital punishment in the People's Republic of China)

Related Topics:
Amnesty International - 2004 - Countries - People's Republic of China - 1990 - 2001 - Capital punishment in the People's Republic of China

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The 12 countries with the most executions in 2004:

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Conservative American political activist Phyllis Schlafly provides a much higher count of executions in China than Amnesty International:

Related Topics:
Conservative - Phyllis Schlafly

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:"...every year China has nearly 10,000 death penalty cases that result in immediate execution. That is five times more than all death penalty cases from other nations combined. China's executions have always been a closely guarded state secret, but these totals were revealed by Chen Zhonglin, a National People's Congress delegate." http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2004/apr04/04-04-14.html

Related Topics:
Chen Zhonglin - National People's Congress

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According to the United Nations Secretary-General's quinquennial report on capital punishment, the highest per capita use of the death penalty is in Singapore, with a rate of 13.57 executions per one million population for the period of 1994 to 1999. The death penalty is meted out for what is considered the most serious of offences. Out of 138 persons sentenced in the period from 1999 to 2003, 110 were for drug-related offences, while the rest for murder and arms-related offences. Executions by hanging occur on Friday mornings in Changi prison, and are seldom publicized.

Related Topics:
United Nations - Singapore - Hanging - Changi prison - Publicized

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In most countries that have capital punishment, it is used to punish only murder or war-related crimes. In some countries, like the People's Republic of China, some non-violent crimes, like drug and business related crimes, are punishable by death. Capital punishment is used widely in Asia for drug related crimes, including in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Related Topics:
Vietnam - Malaysia - Indonesia

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Most democratic countries today have abolished the death penalty, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, almost all of Europe, and much of Latin America, though in Honduras there is a political debate raging about whether, having been abolished in 1956, it should be restored. Among western countries, the first to abolish capital punishment was Portugal, where the last execution took place in 1846, and the punishment was officially abolished in 1867. In all, 89 countries have abolished the death penalty altogether, another 28 countries have not executed anyone in the last ten years, and 9 officially maintain the death penalty only for "exceptional crimes" (e.g., war crimes).

Related Topics:
Democratic - Canada - Australia - New Zealand - Europe - Latin America - Honduras - 1956 - Portugal - 1846 - 1867 - War crime

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In 1949, Federal Republic of Germany and Costa Rica became the first countries in the world to ban the death penalty in their constitutions. As of 2005, the constitutions of 42 countries prohibit capital punishment.

Related Topics:
1949 - Federal Republic of Germany - Costa Rica - 2005

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Countries that retain it include Japan, the United States, and a number of countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean. Altogether, 74 countries still use the death penalty.

Related Topics:
Japan - United States - Africa - Middle East - Asia - Caribbean

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In the United States, the issue of capital punishment is largely left up to the individual states; the federal government reserves the right to perform executions, but does so extremely infrequently. A number of states do not use the death penalty, having either legally abolished it or by declaring a moratorium on its use, as has been done in Illinois under Governor George H. Ryan. The most comprehensive source lists less than 15,000 people executed in the United States or its colonial predecessors between 1608 and 1991. http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution.htm More accurate statistics list 4,661 executions in the United States in the period 1930–2002 with about two-thirds of them occurring in the first twenty years.http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm Additionally the U.S. Army executed 160 soldiers between 1930 and 1967. The last U.S. Navy execution took place in 1849. (See also: Capital punishment in the United States)

Related Topics:
Federal government - Illinois - George H. Ryan - 1608 - 1991 - 1930 - 2002 - U.S. Army - 1967 - U.S. Navy - 1849 - Capital punishment in the United States

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Only six countries practice the death penalty for juveniles, that is criminals aged under 18 at the time of their crime. In the 1980s and 1990s, most executions for juvenile crime took place in the United States, although, due to the slow process of appeals, no one under age 19 has been executed in recent years. http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution.htm http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=27&did=206 In 2005, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that the death penalty cannot be applied to persons who were under age 18 at the time of commission of the crime. That decision resulted in 72 convicted murderers being taken off death row. In the United States and ancestor bodies politic since 1642, an estimated 364 juvenile offenders have been put to death by states and the federal government. Although the People's Republic of China accounts for the vast majority of executions in the world, it does not allow for the executions of those under 18. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=27&did=206 Execution of those aged under age 18 has occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Iran since 1990. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=27&did=208

Related Topics:
1980s - 1990s - United States Supreme Court - Roper v. Simmons - Death row - 1642 - People's Republic of China - Democratic Republic of the Congo - Pakistan - Yemen - Saudi Arabia - Nigeria - Iran

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The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which among other things forbids capital punishment for juveniles, has been signed and ratified by all countries except the USA and Somalia (Somalia at the present time is unable to ratify).http://www.unicef.org/crc/faq.htm#009

Related Topics:
United Nations - Convention on the Rights of the Child - Ratified - Somalia

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There are a number of international conventions prohibiting the death penalty, most notably the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights. However, such conventions bind only those that are party to them; customary international law does not prohibit the death penalty.

Related Topics:
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - European Convention on Human Rights

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Several international organizations have made the abolition of the death penalty a requirement of membership, most notably the European Union and the Council of Europe. The European Union and the Council of Europe require abolition of the death penalty by states wishing to join, but are willing to accept a moratorium as an interim measure. Thus, while Russia is a member of the Council of Europe, and practices the death penalty in law, it has not made use of it since becoming a member of the Council. Another example is Latvia which entered a moratorium in 1996. Latvia retains the death penalty in extraordinary circumstances, and is the only member of the European Union not to have ratified the 13th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (which prohibits the death penalty in all circumstances). Latvia's parliament has, however, signed the 13th Protocol.

Related Topics:
European Union - Council of Europe - Moratorium - Russia - Latvia

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Turkey has recently, as a move towards EU membership, undergone a reform of its legal system. Previously there was a de facto moratorium on death penalty in Turkey as the last execution took place in 1984. The death penalty was removed from peactime law as in August 2002, and in May 2004 Turkey amended its constitution in order to remove capital punishment in all circumstances. As a result of this, Europe is a continent free of the death penalty in practice (all states having ratified the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights), with the sole exception of Belarus, which is not a member of the Council of Europe. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has also been lobbying for Council of Europe observer states who practice the death penalty, namely the United States and Japan, to abolish it also or lose their observer status.

Related Topics:
Turkey - 1984 - Belarus - United States - Japan

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• See also:
• Capital punishment in Belarus
• Capital punishment in Canada
• Capital punishment in the People's Republic of China
• Capital punishment in France
• Capital punishment in India
• Capital punishment in New Zealand
• Capital punishment in the United Kingdom
• Capital punishment in the United States