Early Death Penalty Laws

The earliest death penalty laws date back to the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon.  The death penalty was also a part of the Hittite Code, the Draconian Code of Athens (which made death the only punishment for all crimes), and the Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets.  Death sentences were carried out by crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement.

However, until the eighteenth century, a simple sentence of death was not the harshest punishment for criminal behavior.  Torture was.  People found guilty of major crimes (often minor crimes by our standards) would be tortured to death, and the torture was so cruel that death came as a relief.  Condemned persons were commonly boiled, burned, roasted on spits, drawn and quartered, broken on wheels, disemboweled, slowly dismembered, or torn apart by horses.  These tortures often lasted for days, and were considered entertainment by the townspeople who would attend these punishments. 

In the Tenth Century A.D., Britain's typical method of execution was hanging.  After a brief hiatus from the death penalty by William the Conqueror (who restricted execution to times of war), Henry VIII executed nearly 72.000 people.  (We must assume the ban on execution was lifted.)  The death penalty of this time consisted of many forms of torture (drawing and quartering, boiling, burning at the stake) in addition to beheading and hanging.  Executions were carried out for such capital offenses as marrying a Jew, not confessing to a crime, and treason.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Courtesy of Museum of London

During the next few centuries in Britain, the number of capital crimes continued to rise.  By the 1700's, 222 crimes were punishable by death, including stealing, cutting down a tree, and robbing a rabbit warren.  Due to the severity of the penalty of death,  many juries would not convict defendants if the offense was not serious.  This led to reforms in Britain's death penalty.  From 1823 ot 1837, the death penalty was eliminated for over 100 of the 222 crimes punishable by death.

You may ask, "Why is all this British history important?"  The answer is: Britain influenced America's use of the death penalty more than any other country did.  Therefore, it leads us up to...

The Death Penalty in America

Colonial Times
When European settlers came to the new world, they brought the practice of capital punishment.  The first recorded execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608, who was accused of being a spy for Spain.  Laws regarding the punishment of death varied from colony to colony.  Virginia governor Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral and Marital Laws, which provided the death penalty for even minor offenses (such as killing chickens, stealing grapes, and trading with Indians).  The Massachusetts Bay Colony held its first execution in 1630, even though the Capital Laws of New England did not go into effect until years later.  The New York Colony instituted the Duke's Laws of 1665 (which provided for the punishment of death for striking one's mother or father, or denying the "true God.")

American intellectuals who opposed the death penalty found comfort in Cesare Beccaria's 1769 essay, On Crimes and Punishment, in which he theorized that there was no justification for the state taking a life.  Thomas Jefferson, in an attempt to reform Virginia's harsh death penalty laws, proposed a bill that suggested that capital punishment be used only for the crimes of murder and treason.  It was defeated by only one vote.
Courtesy of Constitution.org

Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and founder of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, challenged the idea that the death penalty served as a deterrent.  He gained support in people of high respect, such as Benjamin Franklin and Philadelphia Attorney General William Bradford.  Bradford believed the death penalty should be retained, but should be limited to only some crimes.  He later led Pennsylvania to become the first state to consider degrees of murder based on liability.  Later, Pennsylvania became the repealed the death penalty for all offenses except first degree murder.

Changes in Death Penalty Laws
Serious movement towards reform of the death penalty began to show beginning in the early nineteenth century.  Many states reduced the number of their capital crimes and built state penitentiaries.  Pennsylvania became the first state to move executions away from the public eye and carry them out in correctional facilities.   Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason (1846).  Later, Wisconsin and Rhode Island abolished the death penalties for all crimes.

Although some U.S. states began abolishing the death penalty, most states held onto capital punishment.  Some states made more capital offenses, especially for offenses committed by slaves.  In 1838, in an effort to make the death penalty more palatable to the public, some states passed laws against mandatory death sentencing, instead enacting discretionary death penalty statues.  With the exception of a small number of rarely committed crimes in a few jurisdictions, all mandatory capital punishment laws had been abolished by 1963.  image courtesy of avstop.com

During the Civil War, the death penalty waned, as more attention was given to the anti-slavery movement.  After the war, new means of executions emerged.  The electric chair was introduced at the end of the century.

Early and Mid Twentieth Century
From 1907 to 1917, six states completely outlawed the death penalty and three limited it to rarely committed crimes, such as treason and first degree murder of a law enforcement official.  However, this reform was short lived.  The panic caused by the Russian Revolution and the United States' entrance into World War I allowed for five of the six abolitionist states to reinstate the death penalty.

Nevada, searching for a more humane way to execute its prisoners, developed cyanide gas in 1924.  The gas chamber was invented soon after it was discovered that the gas could not just be pumped into the inmate's cell while he slept.

From the 1920's to the 1940's, there was a resurgence in the use of the death penalty.  During the Great Depression and Prohibition, the 30's, there were more executions per year than at any other time in American history: an average of 167.

In the 1950's, public sentiment began to turn away from capital punishment.  Many allied nations either abolished or severely limited the death penalty, and in the U.S., the number of executions dropped dramatically.  In 1966, support reached an all time low, hovering at just 42%.
 

All information from MSU's Death Penalty info site.  For more complete history, go to www.deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu

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