Estudiante

Death Penalty

The death penalty has been a very controversial topic in the United States for the past decades. While you have very opinionated people on each side of the spectrum, does anyonereally wonder about any facts? What crimes are punishable by capital punishment? How much history is there to keep us informed of our beliefs? How much does it cost for capital punishment to be appliedto a prisoner, or what are some of the issues in this controversy? Is it true about discrimination, and what states are opposed to or in favor of the death penalty? While many people are expressingtheir opinions on whether we should take the lives of these criminals or not, I feel like they should know some facts before making an opinion.
The death penalty has existed since the Babyloniantimes. The Code of Hammurabi contained the first known penalty laws. Twenty-five crimes were punishable by death, under the code that was written in the 1700s B.C. Adultery (cheating on a husband orwife) and helping slaves escape was just a couple of crimes punishable by death, surprisingly murder was not one of these twenty-five crimes. When the first colonist sailed across the ocean to theland that is now known as the United States, they brought the British penal system with them. In England one could be executed for a crime as simple as disturbing the peace, and in Virginia a colonistcould be executed for crimes as trivial as stealing grapes, killing chickens or trading with the Indians. The first execution for a serious offense in the new colonies was in 1608, in Jamestown colonyof Virginia. Captain George Kendall was hanged for the capital offense of treason, other serious capital crimes in colonial times were murder, rape, heresy, and witchcraft. In 1782 Pennsylvaniabegan to limit crimes punishable by death to treason and murder. When writing the constitution in the year 1787 by the founding fathers the death penalty was allowed. From 1907 to 1917, six states...