Essay: The History of Capital Punishment

Sample Essay

Words 1,540

This essay discusses the history of capital punishment. Death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C., which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. United Kingdom influenced America’s use of the death penalty more than any other country. When European settlers came to the new world, they brought the practice of capital punishment. The first evidence execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608.

Introduction

Death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C., which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. United Kingdom influenced America’s use of the death penalty more than any other country. When European settlers came to the new world, they brought the practice of capital punishment. The first evidence execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain. In 1612, Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale ratify the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, which provided the death penalty for even minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indians.

Colonial times

Laws concerning the death penalty varied from colony to colony. The Massachusetts Bay Colony held its first execution in 1630, even though the Capital Laws of New England did not go into outcome until years later. The New York Colony instituted the Duke’s Laws of 1665. Under these laws, offenses such as striking one’s mother or father, or denying the “true God,” were liable to be punished by death. (Randa, 97)

Kindly order custom made Essays, Term Papers, Research Papers, Thesis, Dissertation, Assignment, Book Reports, Reviews, Presentations, Projects, Case Studies, Coursework, Homework, Creative Writing, Critical Thinking, on the topic by clicking on the order page.