Capital punishment or the
death
penalty, is the execution of a person by
judicial process as a punishment for an
offense. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as
capital crimes or
capital offences.The term
capital originates from
Latin
capitalis, literally "regarding the head" (Latin
caput). Hence, a capital crime was originally one punished
by the
severing of the head.
Capital punishment has been practiced in virtually every society,
and thus can be considered to be a
cultural universal or close to it,
excluding those with
state religious
proscriptions against it. It is a matter of active controversy in
various countries and states, and positions can vary within a
single
political ideology or
cultural region. In the
EU member states, Article
2 of the
Charter of
Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of
capital punishment.
Today, most countries are considered by
Amnesty International as
abolitionists, which allowed a vote on a
nonbinding resolution to the
UN to promote the abolition of the death penalty. But more than
60% of the worldwide population live in countries where executions
take place insofar as the four
most populous countries in the
world (the People's Republic of China, India, United States and
Indonesia) apply the death penalty and are unlikely to abolish it
at any time soon.
History
Execution of
criminal and political opponents
has been used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime and to
suppress
political dissent. In
most places that practice capital punishment it is reserved for
murder,
espionage,
treason, or as part of
military justice. In some countries sexual
crimes, such as
rape,
adultery,
incest and
sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious
crimes such as
apostasy in
Islamic nations (the formal renunciation of the
State religion). In many
countries that use the death
penalty,
drug trafficking is
also a capital offense. In China,
human trafficking and serious
cases of
corruption are
punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world
courts-martial have imposed death
sentences for offenses such as
cowardice,
desertion,
insubordination, and
mutiny.

Anarchist guillotined in France in
1894
The use of formal execution extends to the beginning of recorded
history. Most historical records and various primitive tribal
practices indicate that the death penalty was a part of their
justice system. Communal punishment for wrongdoing generally
included compensation by the wrongdoer,
corporal punishment,
shunning,
banishment and
execution. Usually, compensation and shunning were enough as a form
of justice. The response to crime committed by neighbouring tribes
or communities included formal apology, compensation or
blood feuds.
A
blood feud or
vendetta
occurs when arbitration between families or tribes fails or an
arbitration system is non-existent. This form of justice was common
before the emergence of an arbitration system based on state or
organised religion. It may result from crime, land disputes or a
code of honour. "Acts of retaliation underscore the ability of the
social collective to defend itself and demonstrate to enemies (as
well as potential allies) that injury to property, rights, or the
person will not go unpunished." However, in practice, it is often
difficult to distinguish between a
war of
vendetta and one of conquest.
Severe historical penalties include
breaking wheel,
boiling to death,
flaying,
slow slicing,
disembowelment,
crucifixion,
impalement,
crushing
(including
crushing by
elephant),
stoning,
execution by burning,
dismemberment,
sawing,
decapitation,
scaphism,
or
necklacing.
Elaborations of tribal arbitration of
feuds
included peace settlements often done in a religious context and
compensation system. Compensation was based on the principle of
substitution which might include material (e.g. cattle,
slave) compensation, exchange of brides or grooms, or payment of
the blood debt. Settlement rules could allow for animal blood to
replace human blood, or transfers of property or
blood money or in some case an offer of a
person for execution. The person offered for execution did not have
to be an original perpetrator of the crime because the system was
based on tribes, not individuals. Blood feuds could be regulated at
meetings, such as the
Viking thing. Systems deriving from blood
feuds may survive alongside more advanced legal systems or be given
recognition by courts (e.g.
trial by
combat). One of the more modern refinements of the blood feud
is the
duel.
In certain parts of the world, nations in the form of ancient
republics, monarchies or tribal oligarchies emerged. These nations
were often united by common linguistic, religious or family ties.
Moreover, expansion of these nations often occurred by conquest of
neighbouring tribes or nations. Consequently, various classes of
royalty, nobility, various commoners and slave emerged.
Accordingly, the systems of tribal arbitration were submerged into
a more unified system of justice which formalised the relation
between the different "classes" rather than "tribes". The earliest
and most famous example is
Code of
Hammurabi which set the different punishment and compensation
according to the different class/group of victims and perpetrators.
The
Torah (Jewish Law), also known as the
Pentateuch (the first five books of the
Christian
Old Testament), lays down
the death penalty for murder,
kidnapping,
magic, violation of the
Sabbath,
blasphemy, and a
wide range of sexual crimes, although evidence suggests that actual
executions were rare.
A further example comes from Ancient Greece, where the Athenian
legal system
was first written down by Draco in
about 621 BC: the death penalty was applied for a particularly wide
range of crimes, though Solon later repealed
Draco's code and published new laws, retaining only Draco's
homicide statutes. The word
draconian derives from Draco's laws. The
Romans also used death penalty for a
wide range of offenses.
Islam on the whole accepts capital punishment.
The
Abbasid Caliphs in
Baghdad
, such as Al-Mu'tadid,
were often cruel in their punishments. In the
medieval Islamic world, there were a
handful of
sheikhs who were opposed to
killing as a punishment. In the
One Thousand and One
Nights, also known as the
Arabian Nights, the
fictional storyteller
Sheherazade is
portrayed as being the "voice of
sanity and
mercy", with her
philosophical position being generally
opposed to punishment by death. She expresses this though several
of her tales, including "The Merchant and the Jinni", "
The Fisherman and the Jinni",
"
The Three Apples", and "The
Hunchback".
Similarly, in
medieval and early modern
Europe, before the development of modern
prison systems, the death penalty was also used as a
generalised form of punishment.
For example, in 1700s Britain
there were 222 crimes which were punishable by
death, including crimes such as cutting down a tree or stealing an
animal. Thanks to the notorious
Bloody Code, 18th century (and early 19th
century) Britain was a hazardous place to live.
For example, Michael
Hammond and his sister, Ann, whose ages were given as 7 and 11,
were reportedly hanged at King's Lynn
on Wednesday, September 28, 1708 for theft. The local press did not, however,
consider the executions of two children newsworthy.
Although many are executed in China each year in the modern age,
there was a time in
Tang Dynasty China
when the death penalty was abolished. This was in the year 747,
enacted by
Emperor Taizong of
Tang (r. 712–756), who before was the only person in China with
the authority to sentence criminals to execution. Even then capital
punishment was relatively infrequent, with only 24 executions in
the year 730 and 58 executions in the year 736. Two hundred years
later there was a form of execution called Ling Chi (
slow slicing), or death by/of a thousand cuts,
used in China from roughly 900 CE to its abolition in 1905.

Mexican execution by firing squad,
1916
Despite its wide use, calls for reform were not unknown. The 12th
century
Sephardic legal scholar, Moses
Maimonides, wrote, "It is better and more
satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a
single innocent man to death." He argued that executing an accused
criminal on anything less than absolute certainty would lead to a
slippery slope of decreasing
burdens of
proof, until we would be convicting merely "according to the
judge's caprice." His concern was maintaining popular respect for
law, and he saw errors of commission as much more threatening than
errors of omission.
The last several centuries have seen the emergence of modern
nation-states. Almost fundamental to the concept of nation state is
the idea of citizenship. This caused justice to be increasingly
associated with equality and universality, which in Europe saw an
emergence of the concept of
natural
rights. Another important aspect is that emergence of standing
police forces and permanent penitential institutions. The death
penalty became an increasingly unnecessary
deterrent in prevention of minor crimes such as
theft. The argument that deterrence, rather than retribution, is
the main justification for punishment is a hallmark of the
rational choice theory
and can be traced to
Cesare
Beccaria whose well-known treatise
On Crimes and Punishments
(1764), condemned
torture and the
death penalty and
Jeremy Bentham who twice critiqued the death
penalty. Additionally, in countries like Britain, law enforcement
officials became alarmed when juries tended to acquit non-violent
felons rather than risk a conviction that could result in
execution. Moving executions there inside prisons and away from
public view was prompted by official recognition of the phenomenon
reported first by Beccaria in Italy and later by
Charles Dickens and
Karl Marx of increased violent criminality at the
times and places of executions.
The 20th century was one of the bloodiest of the human history.
Massive killing occurred as the resolution of war between
nation-states. A large part of execution was summary execution of
enemy combatants. Also, modern military organisations employed
capital punishment as a means of maintaining military discipline.
The Soviets, for example, executed 158,000 soldiers for desertion
during
World War II. In the past,
cowardice, absence without leave,
desertion,
insubordination,
looting, shirking under enemy fire and disobeying
orders were often crimes punishable by death (see
decimation and
running the gauntlet). One method of
execution since firearms came into common use has almost invariably
been
firing squad. Moreover, various
authoritarian states—for example those with fascist or communist
governments—employed the death penalty as a potent means of
political oppression. Partly as a response to such excessive
punishment, civil organisations have started to place increasing
emphasis on the concept of human rights and abolition of the death
penalty.
Among
countries around the world, almost all European and many Pacific
Area states (including Australia, New Zealand and Timor Leste
), and Canada have abolished capital
punishment. In Latin
America, most states have completely abolished the use of
capital punishment, while some countries, such as Brazil
, allow for
capital punishment only in exceptional situations, such as treason
committed during wartime. The United States (the
federal government and 35 of the states), Guatemala
, most of the Caribbean
and the majority of democracies in Asia
(e.g. Japan and India) and Africa (e.g.
Botswana
and Zambia
) retain
it. South Africa, which is probably the most developed
African nation, and which has been a democracy since 1994, does not
have the death penalty. This fact is currently quite controversial
in that country, due to the high levels of violent crime, including
murder and rape.
Advocates of the death penalty argue that it deters crime, is a
good tool for police and prosecutors (in
plea bargaining for example), improves the
community by making sure that convicted criminals do not offend
again, provides closure to surviving victims or loved ones, and is
a just penalty for their crime. Opponents of capital punishment
argue that it has led to the execution of
wrongfully convicted, that it
discriminates against minorities and the poor, that it does not
deter criminals more than
life imprisonment, that it encourages a
"culture of violence", that it is more expensive than life
imprisonment, and that it violates
human
rights.
Movements towards humane execution
In early
New
England
, public executions were a very solemn and sorrowful
occasion, sometimes attended by large crowds, who also listened to
a Gospel message and remarks by local preachers and
politicians. The
Connecticut Courant records one
such public execution on December 1, 1803, saying, "The assembly
conducted through the whole in a very orderly and solemn manner, so
much so, as to occasion an observing gentleman acquainted with
other countries as well as this, to say that such an assembly, so
decent and solemn, could not be collected anywhere but in New
England."Trends in most of the world have long been to move to less
painful, or more humane, executions. France developed the
guillotine for this reason in the final years of
the 18th century while Britain banned
drawing and quartering in the
early 19th century.
Hanging by turning the
victim off a ladder or by kicking a stool or a bucket, which causes
death by suffocation, was replaced by "hanging" where the subject
is dropped a longer distance to dislocate the neck and sever the
spinal cord. In the U.S., the
electric chair and the
gas chamber were introduced as more humane
alternatives to hanging, but have been almost entirely superseded
by
lethal injection, which in turn
has been criticised as being too painful. Nevertheless, some
countries still employ slow hanging methods, beheading by sword and
even
stoning, although the latter is rarely
employed.
Abolitionism
The death penalty was banned in China between 747 and 759. In
England, a public statement of opposition was included in
The Twelve Conclusions of
the Lollards, written in 1395. Sir Thomas More's
Utopia, published in 1516, debated the
benefits of the death penalty in dialogue form, coming to no firm
conclusion. More recent opposition to the death penalty stemmed
from the book of the Italian
Cesare
Beccaria Dei Delitti e Delle Pene ("
On Crimes and Punishments"),
published in 1764. In this book, Beccaria aimed to demonstrate not
only the injustice, but even the futility from the point of view of
social welfare, of
torture and the death penalty. Influenced by the
book,
Grand Duke Leopold
II of Habsburg, famous
enlightened monarch and future
Emperor of Austria, abolished the death penalty in the
then-independent
Grand Duchy of
Tuscany, the first permanent abolition in modern times. On
November 30, 1786, after having
de facto blocked capital
executions (the last was in 1769), Leopold promulgated the reform
of the
penal code that abolished the
death penalty and ordered the destruction of all the instruments
for capital execution in his land. In 2000 Tuscany's regional
authorities instituted an annual holiday on November 30 to
commemorate the event. The event is commemorated on this day by 300
cities around the world celebrating
Cities for Life Day.

Peter Leopold II, Grand Duke of
Tuscany, by Joseph Hickel, 1769
The
Roman Republic
banned capital punishment in 1849.
Venezuela
followed suit and abolished the death penalty in
1863 and San
Marino did so in 1865. The last execution in San Marino
had taken place in 1468. In Portugal, after
legislative proposals in 1852 and 1863, the
death penalty was abolished in 1867.
In the United Kingdom, it was abolished for murder (leaving only
treason,
piracy with violence,
Arson in royal dockyards and a
number of wartime military offences as capital crimes) for a five
year experiment in 1965 and permanently in 1969, the last execution
having taken place in 1964. It was abolished for all peacetime
offences in 1998.
France abolished it in 1981, Canada abolished it in 1976 and
Australia in 1985. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly
affirmed in a formal resolution that throughout the world, it is
desirable to "progressively restrict the number of offenses for
which the death penalty might be imposed, with a view to the
desirability of abolishing this punishment".
In the
United States, Michigan
was the first state to ban the death penalty, on
May 18, 1846. The death penalty was declared
unconstitutional between 1972-1976 based on the
Furman v. Georgia case, but the 1976
Gregg v. Georgia case once again permitted the death
penalty under certain circumstances. Further limitations were
placed on the death penalty in
Atkins
v. Virginia (death penalty
unconstitutional for persons with IQ below 70, the baseline for
mental retardation) and
Roper v.
Simmons (death penalty
unconstitutional if defendant was under age 18 at the time the
crime was committed).
Currently, as of March 18, 2009, 15 states
of the U.S. and the District of Columbia
ban capital punishment. Of the states where
the death penalty is permitted, California
has the largest number of inmates on death row, while Texas
has been the
most active in carrying out executions (approximately 1/3rd of all
executions since the practice was again legalized).
The
latest country to abolish the death penalty for all crimes was
Togo
, on June 23, 2009. Human Rights activists oppose the death
penalty, calling it "cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment".
Amnesty International
considers it to be "the ultimate denial of Human Rights".
Contemporary use
Global distribution
Since
World War II there has been a
consistent trend towards abolishing the death penalty. In 1977, 16
countries were abolitionist. Currently, 95 countries had abolished
capital punishment, 9 had done so for all offences except under
special circumstances, and 35 had not used it for at least 10 years
or were under a moratorium. The other 58 actively retained the
death penalty.
According to Hands Off Cain, at least 5,727 executions were carried
out in 26 States in 2008.
The use of the death penalty is becoming increasingly restrained in
retentionist countries. Singapore, Japan and the U.S. are the only
fully developed countries that have retained the death penalty. The
death penalty was overwhelmingly practiced in poor and
authoritarian states, which often employed the death penalty as a
tool of political oppression. During the 1980s, the democratisation
of Latin America swelled the rank of abolitionist countries. This
was soon followed by the fall of
communism
in
Central and
Eastern Europe, which then aspired to enter
the
EU. In these countries, the public support
for the death penalty varies but it is decreasing. The
European Union and the
Council of Europe both strictly require
member states
not to practice the death penalty (see
Capital punishment in Europe).
On the other hand, rapid industrialisation in Asia has been
increasing the number of developed retentionist countries. In these
countries, the death penalty enjoys strong public support, and the
matter receives little attention from the government or the media.
This trend has been followed by some African and Middle Eastern
countries where support for the death penalty is high.
Some countries have resumed practicing the death penalty after
having suspended executions for long periods.
The United States
suspended executions in 1967 but resumed them in 1977; there was no
execution in India between 1995 and 2004; and Sri Lanka
recently declared an end to its moratorium on the death penalty, although
it has not yet performed any executions. The Philippines
re-introduced the death penalty in 1993 after
abolishing it in 1987, but abolished it again in 2006.
Execution for drug-related offences
Some countries that retain the death penalty for murder and other
violent crimes do not execute offenders for drug-related crimes.
The following is a list of countries that currently have statutory
provisions for the death penalty for drug-related offences.
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Brunei
Republic of China
Egypt
India
(no execution carried out for such offences)
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Kuwait
Laos
Malaysia
Oman
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Thailand
United States
(Although Federal Law provides the death penalty for certain drug offences, no one is on death row for such offences)
Vietnam
Zimbabwe
In specific countries
[[File:Death Penalty World Map.svg|thumb|400px|Use of the
death penalty around the
world (as of June 2009).
- Note that, while laws vary between U.S.
states, it is considered retentionist because the federal death
penalty is still in active use.]]
For further information about capital punishment in these countries
or regions, see:
Australia ·
Canada ·
People's
Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) ·
Europe ·
India ·
Iran ·
Iraq ·
Japan ·
New Zealand ·
Pakistan·
Philippines ·
Russia ·
Singapore ·
Taiwan ·
United Kingdom ·
United
States
Juvenile offenders
The death penalty for
juvenile offenders
(criminals aged under 18 years at the time of their crime) has
become increasingly rare.
Since 1990, nine countries have executed
offenders who were juveniles at the time of their crimes: The
People's
Republic of China
(PRC), Democratic Republic of the
Congo
, Iran
, Nigeria
, Pakistan
, Saudi
Arabia
, Sudan
, the United
States and Yemen
. The
PRC, Pakistan, the United States and Yemen have since raised the
minimum age to 18.
Amnesty
International has recorded 61 verified executions since then,
in several countries, of both juveniles and adults who had been
convicted of committing their offenses as juveniles. The PRC does
not allow for the execution of those under 18, but child executions
have reportedly taken place.
Starting in 1642 within
British
America, an estimated 365 juvenile offenders were executed by
the states and federal government of the United States. The United
States Supreme Court abolished capital punishment for offenders
under the age of 16 in
Thompson
v. Oklahoma
(1988), and for all juveniles in
Roper v. Simmons (2005). In addition, in 2002,
the United States Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the
execution of individuals with
mental
retardation, in
Atkins
v. Virginia.
Between 2005 and May 2008, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and
Yemen were reported to have executed child offenders, the most
being from Iran.
The
United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child, which forbids capital punishment for juveniles
under article 37(a), has been signed by all countries and ratified, except for Somalia
and the United States (notwithstanding the latter's
Supreme Court decisions abolishing the practice). The UN
Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
maintains that the death penalty for juveniles has become contrary
to a
jus cogens of
customary international law. A
majority of countries are also party to the U.N.
International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (whose Article 6.5 also
states that "Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes
committed by persons below eighteen years of age...").
In Japan, the minimum age for the death penalty is 18 as mandated
by the internationals standards. But under Japanese law, anyone
under 20 is considered a juvenile. There are
three men
currently on death row for crimes they committed at age 18 or
19.
Iran
Iran, despite its ratification of the
Convention on the Rights
of the Child and
International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is currently the
world's biggest executioner of juvenile offenders, for which it has
received international condemnation; the country's record is the
focus of the
Stop Child
Executions Campaign.
Iran accounts for two-thirds of the global total of such
executions, and currently has roughly 140 people on death row for
crimes committed as juveniles (up from 71 in 2007). The past
executions of
Mahmoud
Asgari, Ayaz Marhoni and Makwan Moloudzadeh became
international symbols of Iran's child capital punishment and the
judicial system that hands down such sentences.
Somalia
There is evidence that child executions are taking place in the
parts of Somalia controlled by the
Islamic Courts Union. In October, 2008,
a girl, Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow was buried up to her neck at a
football stadium, then
stoned to death in front of more than 1,000 people.
The
stoning occurred after she had allegedly pleaded guilty to adultery in a shariah court
in Kismayo
, a city controlled by Islamist insurgents. According to the
insurgents she had stated that she wanted shariah law to
apply.
However, other sources state that the victim had been crying, that
she begged for mercy and had to be forced into the hole before
being buried up to her neck in the ground.
Amnesty International later learned
that the girl was in fact 13 years old (i.e., a
child) and had been arrested by the al-Shabab
militia after she had reported being gang-raped by three men.
Methods
Methods of execution include
electrocution, the
firing squad or other sorts of
shooting,
stoning in
Islamic countries,
the
gas chamber, hanging, and
lethal injection.
Controversy and debate
Capital punishment is often the subject of controversy. Opponents
of the death penalty argue that it has led to the
execution of innocent people, that life
imprisonment is an effective and less expensive substitute, that it
discriminates against minorities and the poor, and that it violates
the criminal's
right to life.
Supporters believe that the penalty is justified for murderers by
the principle of
retribution,
that life imprisonment is not an equally effective deterrent, and
that the death penalty affirms the right to life by punishing those
who violate it in the strictest form.
Wrongful executions
Wrongful execution is a
miscarriage of justice occurring when
an innocent person is put to death by capital punishment. Many
people have been proclaimed innocent victims of the death penalty.
Some have claimed that as many as 39 executions have been carried
out in the U.S. in face of compelling evidence of innocence or
serious doubt about guilt. Newly-available
DNA evidence has allowed the
exoneration of more than 15
death row inmates since 1992 in the U.S., but DNA
evidence is only available in a fraction of capital cases. In the
UK, reviews prompted by the
Criminal Cases Review
Commission have resulted in one pardon and three exonerations
with compensation paid for people executed between 1950 and 1953,
when the execution rate in
England and
Wales averaged 17 per year .
Public opinion
In
Canada
, Australia, New Zealand
, Latin America, and
Western Europe, the death penalty has
become relatively unpopular, with the majority of the population
opposing it, however certain cases of mass murder, terrorism, and
child murder occasionally cause waves of support for reinstitution,
such as the Greyhound bus
beheading, Port Arthur massacre
and Bali bombings,
though these are generally emotionally based and fade
away.
Abolition was often adopted due to political change, as when
countries shifted from authoritarianism to democracy, or when it
became an entry condition for the European Union.
The United States is
a notable exception: some states have had bans on capital
punishment for decades (the earliest is Michigan
, where it was abolished in 1847), while others
actively use it today. The death penalty there remains a
contentious issue which is hotly debated. Elsewhere, however, it is
rare for the death penalty to be abolished as a result of an active
public discussion of its merits.
In abolitionist countries, debate is sometimes revived by
particularly brutal murders, though few countries have brought it
back after abolishing it.
However, a spike in serious, violent crimes,
such as murders or terrorist attacks, has prompted some countries
(such as Sri
Lanka
and Jamaica
) to effectively end the moratorium on the death
penalty. In retentionist countries, the debate is sometimes
revived when a miscarriage of justice has occurred, though this
tends to cause legislative efforts to improve the judicial process
rather than to abolish the death penalty.
A
Gallup International poll from 2000
said that "Worldwide support was expressed in favor of the death
penalty, with just more than half (52%) indicating that they were
in favour of this form of punishment."A number of
other polls and studies have been done in recent years
with various results.
In a poll completed by Gallup in October 2008, 64% of Americans
supported the death penalty for persons convicted of murder, while
30% were against and 5% did not have an opinion.
In the U.S., surveys have long shown a majority in favor of capital
punishment. An
ABC News survey in July 2006
found 65 percent in favour of capital punishment, consistent with
other polling since 2000. About half the American public says the
death penalty is not imposed frequently enough and 60 percent
believe it is applied fairly, according to a
Gallup poll from May 2006. Yet surveys also show
the public is more divided when asked to choose between the death
penalty and
life without parole,
or when dealing with juvenile offenders. Roughly six in 10 tell
Gallup they do not believe capital punishment
deter murder and majorities believe at least one
innocent person has been executed in the past five years.
International organisations
The
United Nations introduced a
resolution during
the General Assembly's 62nd sessions in 2007 calling for a
universal ban. The approval of a draft resolution by the Assembly's
third committee, which deals with human rights issues, voted 99 to
52, with 33 abstentions, in favour of the resolution on November
15, 2007 and was put to a vote in the Assembly on December 18.
Again in 2008, a large majority of states from all regions adopted
a second resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the
death penalty in the UN General Assembly (Third Committee) on
November 20. 105 countries voted in favour of the draft resolution,
48 voted against and 31 abstained. A range of amendments proposed
by a small minority of pro-death penalty countries were
overwhelmingly defeated. It had in 2007 passed a non-binding
resolution (by 104 to 54, with 29 abstentions) by asking its member
states for "a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing
the death penalty".

A number of regional conventions prohibit the death penalty, most
notably, the Sixth Protocol (abolition in time of peace) and the
Thirteenth Protocol (abolition in all circumstances) to the
European Convention
on Human Rights. The same is also stated under the Second
Protocol in the
American Convention on Human
Rights, which, however has not been ratified by all countries
in the Americas, most notably Canada and the United States. Most
relevant operative international treaties do not require its
prohibition for cases of serious crime, most notably, the
International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This instead has, in
common with several other treaties, an optional protocol
prohibiting capital punishment and promoting its wider
abolition.
Several international organisations have made the abolition of the
death penalty (during time of peace) a requirement of membership,
most notably the
European Union (EU)
and the
Council of Europe. The EU
and the Council of Europe are willing to accept a
moratorium as an interim measure. Thus,
while Russia is a member of the Council of Europe, and practices
the death penalty in law, it has not made public use of it since
becoming a member of the Council. Other states, while having
abolished
de jure the death penalty in time
of peace and
de facto in all circumstances,
have not ratified
Protocol no.13 yet and therefore have no
international obligation to refrain from using the death penalty in
time of war or imminent threat of war (Armenia, Latvia, Poland and
Spain). Italy is the most recent to ratify it, on March 3,
2009.
Turkey
has
recently, as a move towards EU membership, undergone a reform of
its legal system. Previously there was a
de facto
moratorium on the death penalty in Turkey as the last execution
took place in 1984. The death penalty was removed from peacetime
law in August 2002, and in May 2004 Turkey amended its constitution
in order to remove capital punishment in all circumstances. It
ratified Protocol no. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights
in February 2006.
As a result, Europe is a continent free of
the death penalty in practice, all states but Russia, which has
entered a moratorium, having ratified the Sixth Protocol to the
European Convention on Human Rights, with the sole exception of
Belarus
, which is not a member of the Council of
Europe. The
Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe has been lobbying for Council
of Europe observer states who practice the death penalty, the U.S.
and Japan, to abolish it or lose their observer status. In addition
to banning capital punishment for EU member states, the EU has also
banned detainee transfers in cases where the receiving party may
seek the death penalty.
Among non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch are noted for their
opposition to capital punishment. A number of such NGOs, as well as
trade unions, local councils and bar associations formed a
World Coalition
Against the Death Penalty in 2002.
Religious views
Buddhism
There is disagreement among Buddhists as to whether or not Buddhism
forbids the death penalty. The first of the
Five Precepts (Panca-sila) is to abstain from
destruction of life. Chapter 10 of the
Dhammapada states:
- Everyone fears punishment; everyone fears death, just as you
do. Therefore do not kill or cause to kill. Everyone fears
punishment; everyone loves life, as you do. Therefore do not kill
or cause to kill.
Chapter 26, the final chapter of the Dhammapada, states, "Him I
call a
brahmin who has put aside weapons and
renounced violence toward all creatures. He neither kills nor helps
others to kill." These sentences are interpreted by many Buddhists
(especially in the West) as an injunction against supporting any
legal measure which might lead to the death penalty. However, as is
often the case with the interpretation of scripture, there is
dispute on this matter. Historically, most states where the
official religion is
Buddhism have imposed
capital punishment for some offenses. One notable exception is the
abolition of the death penalty by the
Emperor Saga of Japan in 818. This lasted until
1165, although in private manors executions continued to be
conducted as a form of retaliation. Japan still imposes the death
penalty, although some recent justice ministers have refused to
sign death warrants, citing their
Buddhist
beliefs as their reason. Other Buddhist-majority states vary in
their policy.
For example, Bhutan
has
abolished the death penalty, but Thailand
still retains it, although Buddhism is the official religion in
both.
Judaism
The official teachings of
Judaism approve
the death penalty in principle but the standard of proof required
for application of death penalty is extremely stringent, and in
practice, it has been abolished by various Talmudic decisions,
making the situations in which a death sentence could be passed
effectively impossible and hypothetical. A capital case could not
be tried by a normal
Beit Din of
three but can only be adjudicated by a
Sanhedrin of a minimum of twenty-three.
Forty
years before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
in 70 CE, i.e. in 30
CE, the Sanhedrin
effectively abolished capital punishment, making it a hypothetical
upper limit on the severity of punishment, fitting in finality for
God alone to use, not fallible people.
Most followers of
Judaism either oppose the
death penalty altogether or support it only in extreme cases with
absolute proof, such as well-documented cases of
genocide.
In law schools everywhere, students read the famous quotation from
the 12th century legal scholar,
Maimonides,
- "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty
persons than to put a single innocent one to death."
Maimonides argued that executing a defendant on anything less than
absolute certainty would lead to a slippery slope of decreasing
burdens of proof, until we would be convicting merely "according to
the judge's caprice." Maimonides was concerned about the need for
the law to guard itself in public perceptions, to preserve its
majesty and retain the people's respect.
Islam
Scholars of
Islam hold it to be permissible
but the victim or the family of the victim has the right to pardon.
In
Islamic jurisprudence
(
Fiqh), to forbid what is not forbidden is forbidden.
Consequently, it is impossible to make a case for abolition of the
death penalty, which is explicitly endorsed.
Sharia Law or Islamic law may require
capital punishment, there is great variation within Islamic nations
as to actual capital punishment.
Apostasy in Islam and
stoning to death in Islam are controversial
topics.Furthermore, as expressed in the Qur'an, capital punishment
is condoned. Although the Qur'an prescribes the death penalty for
several
hadd (fixed) crimes—including rape—murder is not
among them. Instead, murder is treated as a civil crime and is
covered by the law of
qisas (retaliation), whereby the
relatives of the victim decide whether the offender is punished
with death by the authorities or made to pay
diyah
(
wergild) as compensation.
"If anyone kills person—unless it be for murder or for spreading
mischief in the land—it would be as if he killed all people. And if
anyone saves a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all
people" (Qur'an 5:32). "Spreading mischief in the land" can mean
many different things, but is generally interpreted to mean those
crimes that affect the community as a whole, and destabilise the
society. Crimes that have fallen under this description have
included: (1) Treason, when one helps an enemy of the Muslim
community; (2) Apostasy, when one leaves the faith; (3) Land, sea,
or air piracy; (4) Rape; (5) Adultery; (6) Homosexual
behaviour.
Christianity
Although some interpret that
Jesus' teachings
condemn the death penalty in
The Gospel
of Luke and
The Gospel of
Matthew regarding
Turning
the other cheek, and in which Jesus intervenes in the
stoning of an adulteress, rebuking the mob with the
phrase "may he who is without sin cast the first stone", others
consider to support it. Also, has a whole list of situations in
which execution is supported. Christian positions on this vary. The
sixth
commandment (fifth in the
Roman Catholic and
Lutheran churches) is preached as 'Thou shalt not
kill' by some denominations and as 'Thou shalt not murder' by
others. As some denominations do not have a hard-line stance on the
subject, Christians of such denominations are free to make a
personal decision.
Roman Catholic Church
The
Church classes capital
punishment as a form of "lawful slaying", a view derived from the
thought of theological authorities such as
Thomas Aquinas, who accepted the death
penalty as a necessary
deterrent and
prevention method, but not as a means of vengeance. (See also
Aquinas
on the death penalty). The
Roman
Catechism states this teaching thus:
Another kind of lawful slaying belongs to the civil
authorities, to whom is entrusted power of life and death, by the
legal and judicious exercise of which they punish the guilty and
protect the innocent.
The just use of this power, far from involving the
crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this
Commandment which prohibits murder.
The end of the Commandment is the preservation and
security of human life.
Now the punishments inflicted by the civil authority,
which is the legitimate avenger of crime, naturally tend to this
end, since they give security to life by repressing outrage and
violence.
Hence these words of David: In the morning I put to
death all the wicked of the land, that I might cut off all the
workers of iniquity from the city of the Lord.
In
Evangelium Vitae,
Pope John Paul II suggested that capital
punishment should be avoided unless it is the only way to defend
society from the offender in question, opining that punishment
"ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in
cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be
possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of
steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such
cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent." The most
recent edition of the
Catechism of the Catholic
Church restates this view. That the assessment of the
contemporary situation advanced by John Paul II is not binding on
the faithful was confirmed by
Cardinal Ratzinger when he wrote in 2004
that,
if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father
on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage
war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present
himself to receive Holy Communion.
While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek
peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing
punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up
arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital
punishment.
There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even
among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty,
but not however with regard to abortion and
euthanasia.
While all Catholics must therefore hold that "the infliction of
capital punishment is not contrary to the teaching of the Catholic
Church, and the power of the State to visit upon culprits the
penalty of death derives much authority from revelation and from
the writings of theologians", the matter of "the advisabilty of
exercising that power is, of course, an affair to be determined
upon other and various considerations."
Anglican and Episcopalian
The
Lambeth Conference of
Anglican and Episcopalian bishops condemned the death penalty in
1988:
United Methodist Church
The
United Methodist Church,
along with other
Methodist churches, also
condemns capital punishment, saying that it cannot accept
retribution or social vengeance as a reason for taking human life.
The Church also holds that the death penalty falls unfairly and
unequally upon marginalised persons including the poor, the
uneducated, ethnic and religious minorities, and persons with
mental and emotional illnesses. The
General
Conference of the United Methodist Church calls for its
bishops to uphold opposition to capital
punishment and for governments to enact an immediate moratorium on
carrying out the death penalty sentence.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
In a 1991 social policy statement, the ELCA officially took a stand
to oppose the death penalty. It states that revenge is a primary
motivation for capital punishment policy and that true healing can
only take place through repentance and forgiveness.
The Southern Baptist Convention
In 2000 the
Southern Baptist
Convention updated
Baptist
Faith and Message. In it the convention officially sanctioned
the use of capital punishment by the State. It said that it is the
duty of the state to execute those guilty of murder and that God
established capital punishment in the
Noahic Covenant.
Other Protestants
Several key leaders early in the
Protestant Reformation, including
Martin Luther and
John Calvin, followed the traditional reasoning
in favour of capital punishment, and the
Lutheran Church's
Augsburg Confession explicitly defended
it. Some Protestant groups have cited
Genesis 9:5–6,
Romans
13:3–4, and
Leviticus
20:1–27 as the basis for permitting the death penalty.
Mennonites,
Church of the Brethren and
Friends have opposed the death
penalty since their founding, and continue to be strongly opposed
to it today. These groups, along with other Christians opposed to
capital punishment, have cited
Christ's
Sermon on the Mount (transcribed
in
Matthew
Chapter 5–7) and
Sermon on the
Plain (transcribed in
Luke 6:17–49). In
both sermons, Christ tells his followers to
turn the other cheek and to love their
enemies, which these groups believe mandates
nonviolence, including opposition to the death
penalty.
Mormons
The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also called
Mormons) neither promotes nor opposes
capital punishment. They officially state it is a "matter to be
decided solely by the prescribed processes of civil law."
Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Eastern Orthodox Christianity
generally has a negative view of the death penalty, but there is
little said either way in this religion.
Esoteric Christianity
The
Rosicrucian Fellowship
and many other
Christian
esoteric schools condemn capital punishment in all
circumstances.
In arts and media
Literature
- The Gospels describe the execution of
Jesus Christ at length, and these
accounts form the central story of the Christian faith. Depictions
of the crucifixion are abundant in Christian art.
- Valerius Maximus' story of Damon
and Pythias was long a famous example of fidelity. Damon was
sentenced to death (the reader does not learn why) and his friend
Pythias offered to take his place while Damon went to say his last
farewells.
- "An Occurrence at
Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story by Ambrose Bierce originally published in 1890.
The story deals with the hanging of a Confederate sympathiser
during the American Civil
War.
- Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities ends in the
climactic execution of the book's main character.
- Victor Hugo's The Last Day of a Condemned
Man (Le Dernier Jour d'un condamné) describes the
thoughts of a condemned man just before his execution; also notable
is its preface, in which Hugo argues at length against
capital punishment.
- Anaïs Nin's anthology Little Birds included an erotic depiction of a
public execution.
- William Burroughs' novel
Naked Lunch also included erotic and
surreal depictions of capital punishment. In the obscenity trial
against Burroughs, the defense claimed successfully that the novel
was a form of anti-death-penalty argument, and therefore had
redeeming political value.
- In The Chamber by John Grisham, a young lawyer tries to save his
Klansman grandfather from being
executed. The novel is noted for presentation of anti-death penalty
materials.
- Bernard Cornwell's novel
Gallows Thief is a whodunit taking place in early 19th century
England, during the so-called "Bloody
Code" a series of laws making several minor crimes capital
offenses. The hero is a detective assigned to investigate the guilt
of a condemned man, and the difficulties he encounters act as a
harsh indictment of the draconian laws and the public's complacent
attitude towards capital punishment.
- A Hanging, by George Orwell, tells the story of an execution
that he witnessed while he served as a policeman in Burma in the
1920s. He wrote, "It is curious, but till that moment I had never
realised what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I
saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery,
the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in
full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were
alive..."
- Discipline and Punish: The
Birth of The Prison, by Michel
Foucault deals with capital punishment relative to how torture
has been eradicated for the most part, and punishment is now quick
and painless. Foucault believes that punishment is now directed
more toward the soul than toward the body.
- A Lesson Before Dying follows a wrongly convicted man
on death row.
- The Stranger (L'Étranger/The
Foreigner, The Outsider), by Albert Camus,
imaginatively describes a murderer sentenced to the guillotine,
based on a trial that Camus attended in Algeria. At the end, the
murderer accepts his coming death, and looks forward to the howls
of execration from a huge crowd of spectators at his
execution.
Film, television, and theatre
Music
- "16 on Death Row", a song from 2Pac's
Posthumous Album R U Still
Down?
- "Women's Prison", song from
Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose album
- "25 Minutes to Go" is a song
written by Shel Silverstein and
sung by Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison and The Brothers Four.
- "The Mercy Seat" by
Nick Cave and the Bad
Seeds (also performed by Johnny
Cash) describes a man being executed via the electric chair who
maintains his innocence until he is about to die, when he admits to
his guilt.
- "Ride The Lightning" by
Metallica is also about a man being
executed via an electric chair, although he is not ultimately
culpable, as through insanity or loss of
autonomy.
- "Hallowed Be Thy Name" by
Iron Maiden is about a man about be
executed by hanging.
- In "Green Green Grass of
Home", the singer who is apparently returning home is actually
awaiting his execution.
- "Shock rock" star Alice Cooper will use three different methods
of capital punishment for his stage shows. The three are the
guillotine, the electric chair (retired) and hanging (first method,
then retired, then used on the 2007 tour).
- Freedom Cry is an album of songs performed by
condemned prisoners in Uganda, recorded by prisoners' rights
charity African Prisons
Project and available online.
- "Gallows Pole" is a centuries old
folk song, popularised by Lead Belly,
which has seen several cover versions. Led
Zeppelin covered the song in the 70's, and was subsequently
revived by Page and Plant during their No Quarter
acoustic tours.
- The Bee Gees song "I've Gotta Get a Message to
You" deals with a man who is about to be executed who wants to
get one last message to his wife.
- The song "The Man I Killed" by NOFX from
their album Wolves in Wolves'
Clothing is sung from the perspective of a death row inmate
during his execution by lethal injection.
- Ellis Unit One – Steve Earle (from the movie, Dead Man Walking)
is a movie that looks at capital punishment from the perspective of
the jail guards.
- Dead Man Walking – Bruce Springsteen (from the movie, Dead Man
Walking) is written from the perspective of the inmate about to be
killed
- "Long Black Veil" is a 1959 song
which has become a country and folk standard in the US
- "Capital Punishment" by Dutch rock band Sandy Coast, which was recorded in 1968.
- "Capital Punishment", a 1999 song by American crust punk band Aus-Rotten
See also
References
External links
Opposing
In favour
Religious views