Capital Punishment In The 1800s

Introduction
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is defined as the physical execution of a person by the state as punishment for a crime. The existence of the death penalty dates as early as the eighteenth century B.C. in the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon. The code outlines twenty-five different crimes for which the death penalty was applied. At this time, the means by which the death penalty was enacted included crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. However, by the tenth century A.D., hanging became the primary execution method in Britain. During the time of William the Conqueror in the eleventh century, executions took place only in times of war. This period ended in the sixteenth century
Hanging was still a common method of execution, along with boiling, burning at the stake, drawing and quartering, and beheading. By the 1700s, the number of crimes punishable by death rose to 222, which later would induce reforms to Britain’s death penalty statutes during the 1800s. Britain has a long history of the use of the death penalty with American ideals at its foundation. Although death sentences have been carried out throughout human history, the first execution in the United States was of “Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain.” Despite the numerous executions taking place in America, laws regarding the death penalty did not arise until the New York Colony instituted the Duke Laws of 1665. The death penalty had been established in the United States and did not encounter any major changes for
To constitute even more standards, “in 1994, President Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act that expanded the federal death penalty to some sixty crimes.” Offenses punishable by death were extended to include treason, murdering a government official, kidnapping resulting in death, and the running of a large-scale drug enterprise. Despite the countless crimes for which the death penalty could be applied, women have historically received the death penalty at a lesser rate to men, with only about three percent of executions being females. In fact, in more recent years, this percentage has dwindled even further, with only about one percent of the people executed in the United States being women. Besides less women put to death, capital punishment has continued to decline for many years as an exceeding amount of convicts are placed in correctional facilities in attempts to be rehabilitated. The public is constantly debating the ethical dilemma surrounding the issue of taking another person's life and for what crimes such a punishment is acceptable for the common