The first mention of legislation involving the death penalty dates back to the 18th century BC, in ancient Babylon under King Hammurabi. The Code of Hammurabi, the best-preserved legal text in the ancient Middle East, provided for the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Some prisoners volunteered or tried to expedite the use of the death penalty, often by waiving any recourse. In prison, too, prisoners have filed petitions or committed other crimes. In the United States, voluntary executioners account for about 11 per cent of death row inmates. Volunteers often circumvent legal procedures to establish the death penalty for the „worst of the worst“ offenders. Opponents of voluntary execution cited the prevalence of mental illness among volunteers, which they compared to suicide. Voluntary executioners received far less attention and effort in legal reform than those who were exonerated after execution. [185] Another interesting fact about the death penalty in the United States is that it was banned for a short time. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court called it „cruel and unusual punishment“ and restricted its use.

But just four years later, the same court lifted the moratorium on the death penalty. Since then, there have been more than 1,600 executions. However, the number of death sentences handed down has decreased in recent years. This may be due to the increasing use of life imprisonment without parole as a sanction and the difficulty of obtaining lethal injection drugs. On the other hand, in ancient Rome, not everything could be a capital crime. Just like the elements of a criminal factor in his conviction today, most crimes in Rome deserve alternative methods of punishment. It is not uncommon for a criminal to be reprimanded publicly or privately, exiled, confiscated, tortured or imprisoned. The death penalty is used only as a last resort, unless one is a foreigner or enslaved.

As you may have assumed, non-Romans were significantly more disadvantaged and were therefore executed much more frequently. Practical arguments against the death penalty usually focus on the idea that it is not an effective deterrent to crime. For example, there is no correlation between the crime rate and the existence of the death penalty in a particular US state. In addition, the death penalty is costly because the appeal process required to prevent unlawful killings is extremely lengthy (and rightly so), and the equipment required is also expensive. What does the death penalty mean today? Why is it still practised if it is not an effective deterrent to crime? Are there other underlying problems that countries could address to reduce crime rates? Criminology, unlike criminal justice, believes so. In fact, 88% of criminologists refute the validity of the death penalty as a deterrent. The death penalty for juvenile offenders (offenders under the age of 18 at the time of the crime, although the legal or accepted definition of „juvenile offender“ may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction) has become increasingly rare. The death penalty for non-lethal crimes is generally much more controversial and is abolished in many countries that retain it. [159] [160] Crimes against humanity such as genocide are generally punishable by death in countries that retain the death penalty. Death sentences for such crimes were handed down and carried out at the Nuremberg trials in 1946 and Tokyo in 1948, but the current International Criminal Court does not apply the death penalty. The maximum penalty available to the International Criminal Court is life imprisonment. In the post-classical Republic of Poljica, life was guaranteed as a fundamental right in its Statute of Poljica of 1440.

The Roman Republic banned the death penalty in 1849. Venezuela followed suit and abolished the death penalty in 1863[49] and San Marino in 1865. The last execution in San Marino took place in 1468. In Portugal, the death penalty was abolished in 1867 following legislative proposals in 1852 and 1863. The last execution of the death penalty in Brazil dates back to 1876, from where all sentences were commuted by Emperor Pedro II until their abolition in 1891 for civil and military crimes in peacetime. The punishment for peacetime crimes was later reintroduced and abolished twice (1938-53 and 1969-78), but in these cases it was limited to acts of terrorism or subversion, which were considered an „internal war“, and all sentences were commuted rather than executed. The death penalty also covers sexual offences such as bestiality. In England, the Buggery Act 1533 provided for hanging as a punishment for sodomy. James Pratt and John Smith were the last two Englishmen to be executed for sodomy in 1835. [32] The death penalty is a legal penalty whereby a person is sentenced to death by the state in retaliation for their crimes.

The Latin origin of the word „capital“ is caput, which means head; As you may have guessed, this is because the death penalty originally referred to execution by beheading. Intentional homicide is punishable by death in most countries where the death penalty is retained, but usually if it involves an aggravating circumstance required by law or a court. Some countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia, have made the death penalty mandatory for murder, although Singapore has changed its laws since 2013 to reserve the mandatory death penalty for premeditated murder, while an alternative life sentence is provided for murder without intent to cause death. Etymologically, the term capital (lit. „of the head“, derived from the Latin capitalis de caput, „head“) in this context alluded to execution by beheading,[1] but executions can be carried out by various other methods, such as hanging, shooting, lethal injection, stoning, electrocution and gassing. The world`s major religions have different views depending on religion, denomination, sect and/or individual adherents. For example, the world`s largest Christian denomination, Catholicism, opposes the death penalty in all cases, while the Baha`i and Islamic religions support the death penalty. [209] [210] In 18th century England, when there was no police, Parliament dramatically increased the number of capital crimes to over 200. These were mainly property crimes, such as felling a cherry tree in an orchard. [37] In 1820, there were 160, including crimes such as shoplifting, petty theft or cattle rustling.

[38] The severity of the so-called Bloody Code has often been tempered by juries who have refused to convict, or judges in the case of petty thefts, who have arbitrarily lowered the stolen value below the legal level for a capital crime. [39] In Nazi Germany, there were three types of death penalty; Hanging, beheading and shooting to death. [40] Modern military organizations have also used the death penalty as a means of maintaining military discipline.