Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Capital Punishment

Unlike most industrialized nations that severely restrict or have banned the practice completely, the United States continues to use capital punishment. Despite international pressures, internal protests, and some compelling arguments against this practice, the United States remains the only industrialized democracy still executing prisoners.

Historical Use of Capital Punishment

The death penalty was used widely in the ancient world. In the 18th century BCE, Babylon prescribed the death penalty for 25 crimes. Even the celebrated ancient democracy in Athens relied heavily on capital punishment in its legal code developed in the 7th century BCE. Roman law is well known for its executions, using various methods, including crucifixion. In England, during the reign of King Henry VIII in the 16th century, approximately 72,000 people were executed.

In Britain during the 1700s, there were more than 20 crimes punishable by death, including many trivial property offenses. Because of this severity, juries often refused to convict many of these offenders. Britain ultimately abolished capital punishment in 1971. France joined in abolishing its execution method by guillotine in 1981. Indeed, currently the European Union prohibits its member states from maintaining death penalty legislation.

This European aversion to capital punishment may well have something to do with the millions of Jews executed by the Nazi state in Hitler's gas chambers. In addition, 200,000 to 300,000 of the disabled were murdered as were nearly 25,000 homosexual men, 226,000 “Gypsies,” up to 200,000 Freemasons, 5 million Russians, 3 million Ukrainians, 1.5 million Belarusians, and 1.8 million non-Jewish Poles. With these staggering figures in mind, one can understand why the new free German state (Federal Republic of Germany) abolished capital punishment in 1949, shortly after the end of the war. As soon as East Germany (the German Democratic Republic) joined the West in 1990, the death penalty was abolished there was well. The remnants of Nazi concentration camps scattered around Germany remind all residents of the horrors of state executions.

Contemporary International Use of the Deatn Penalty

Amnesty International reported in 2006 that 86 nations had abolished the death penalty for all crimes, while an additional 37 had abolished the death penalty in actual practice. Seventy-three nations still retain the death penalty, but the number actually executing prisoners is much smaller. The list of abolition states (together with their year of abolition) is long and impressive. It includes Iceland (1928), Austria (1968), Sweden and Finland (1972), Poland (1976), Portugal and Denmark (1978), Norway, Luxemburg, and Nicaragua (1979), the Netherlands (1982), Australia (1985), New Zealand (1989), Ireland (1990), Switzerland (1992), Greece (1993), Italy (1994), Spain (1995), and Belgium (1996). Forty countries have abolished capital punishment since 1990, including nations as diverse as Cyprus, Armenia, Serbia, Samoa, Senegal, Canada, Mexico, and Greece.

At the other extreme, the People's Republic of China (PRC) executed at least 3,400 people in 2004, most by shooting. Indeed, one PRC government representative claimed that nearly 10,000 were executed per year in China. Other leaders include Iran (at least 159 executions), Vietnam (at least 64), and the United States (59 executions). The death penalty is typical of dictatorships such as China, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution