Sentence of death passed by a judicial body following trial. Capital punishment for murder has been abolished in the UK since 1969, although proposals for its reinstatement are regularly debated by parliament, and it theoretically remains the penalty for high treason and certain other statutory offences, such as piracy with violence. It is still available in several states of the USA, and in many other countries. When the sentence is available, it is not invariably carried out; a head of state or other authority can recommend a reprieve. Countries employ a variety of procedures in carrying out executions, including lethal injection, electrocution, hanging, gassing, and shooting.
| Criminal procedure |
|---|
| Criminal trials and convictions |
| Rights of the accused |
| Right to a fair trial · Speedy trial |
| Jury trial · Presumption of innocence |
| Exclusionary rule (U.S.) |
| Self-incrimination · Double jeopardy |
| Verdict |
| Acquittal · Conviction |
| Not proven (Scot.) · Directed verdict |
| Sentencing |
| Mandatory · Suspended · Custodial |
| Dangerous offender (Can.) |
| Capital punishment · Execution warrant |
| Cruel and unusual punishment |
| Post-conviction events |
| Parole · Probation |
| Tariff (UK) · Life licence (UK) |
| Miscarriage of justice |
| Exoneration · Pardon |
| Related areas of law |
| Criminal defenses |
| Criminal law · Evidence |
| Civil procedure |
| Portals: Law · Criminal justice |
Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. Among democratic countries around the world, most European (all of the European Union) and Latin American states have abolished capital punishment while the United States, Guatemala, and most of the Caribbean as well as some democracies in Asia and Africa retain it. Among nondemocratic countries, the use of the death penalty is common but not universal.
In most places that practice capital punishment today, the death penalty is reserved as a punishment for premeditated murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries with a Muslim majority, sexual crimes, including adultery and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as apostasy from Islam, the formal renunciation of one's religion. In China human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are also 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.
Capital punishment is a contentious issue. Supporters of capital punishment argue that it deters crime, prevents recidivism, and is an appropriate punishment for the crime of murder. Opponents of capital punishment argue that it does not deter criminals more than life imprisonment, violates human rights, leads to executions of some who are wrongfully convicted, and discriminates against minorities and the poor.
The death penalty worldwide
Global distribution of death penalty
Reports from NGOs opposed to the death penalty tend to publicise the view that abolition is a global trend. However, Sri Lanka recently declared an end to its moratorium on the death penalty. However, the use of the death penalty is becoming increasingly restrained in retentionist countries, which is often masked by the population growth because it may nonetheless increase the number of executions being carried out. Countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S. are the only fully developed and democratic nations that have the death penalty. The death penalty was overwhelmingly practiced in poor, undemocratic, and authoritarian states, which often employed the death penalty as a tool of political oppression. In these countries, the public support for the death penalty varies but is decreasing. The European Union and the Council of Europe both strictly require member states not to practice the death penalty. 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 partial democratisation in some African and Middle Eastern countries where the support for the death penalty is low.
Public opinion
Support for the death penalty varies widely. In some abolitionist countries, the majority of the public supports or has supported the death penalty. 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 1846), 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 due to an active public discussion of its merits. However a spike in serious, violent crimes, such as murders or terrorist attacks, have 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 miscarriage of justice occurs, 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 found that "Worldwide support was expressed in favour of the death penalty, with just more than half (52%) indicating that they were in favour of this form of punishment."
In the U.S., surveys have long shown a majority in favor of capital punishment. About half the American public says the death penalty isn't imposed frequently enough and 60 percent believe it is applied fairly, according to a Gallup poll in 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.
International organizations
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. However, most existing international treaties categorically exempt death penalty from prohibition in case of serious crime, most notably, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, while some provide optional protocols to abolish it.
Several international organizations have made the abolition of the death penalty a requirement of membership, most notably the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe. Thus, while Russia is a member of the Council of Europe, and practices the death penalty in law, it has not made 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 (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, France, Italy, Latvia, Moldova, Poland and Spain). Previously there was a de facto moratorium on 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. 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, namely the U.S. and Japan, to abolish it or lose their observer status. In South Asia, Nepal is the only country to have abolished death penalty completely for all crimes.
Among non-governmental organisations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are noted for their opposition to capital punishment.
Juvenile capital punishment
The death penalty for juvenile offenders (criminals aged under 18 years at the time of their crime) has become increasingly rare.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids capital punishment for juveniles, has been signed and ratified by all countries except for the USA and Somalia . The UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights maintains that the death penalty for juveniles has become contrary to customary international law.
The death penalty in specific countries
See also: Use of capital punishment worldwideBelarus · Canada · People's Republic of China · Denmark · Europe · France · India · Japan · The Netherlands · New Zealand ·Pakistan· Philippines · Russia · Singapore · Sweden · Taiwan · United Kingdom · United States
History
The use of formal execution extends at least to the beginning of recorded history. Most historical records as well as various primitive tribal practices indicate that the death penalty was a part of the communal justice system. Moreover, most would hesitate to inflict death on a member of the community. The Pentateuch (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. Similarly, in medieval and early modern Europe, before the development of modern prison systems, the death penalty was also used as a generalized 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. 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." The death penalty become an increasingly unnecessary deterrent in prevention of minor crimes such as theft. In the past, cowardice, absence without leave, desertion, insubordination, looting, shirking under enemy fire and disobeying orders were often crimes punishable by death. Moreover, various authoritarian states—for example those with fascist or communist governments, or dictatorships—employed the death penalty as a potent means of political oppression. Partly as a response to such excessive punishment, civil organizations have started to place increasing emphasis on the concept of human rights and abolition of the death penalty.
See also: Cruel and unusual punishmentAbolitionism in different countries
Although the death penalty was briefly banned in China between 747 and 759, modern opposition to the death penalty stems 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 Granducato di Toscana (Tuscany), the first permanent abolition in modern times. On 30 November 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 1849, the Roman Republic became the first country to ban the capital punishment in its constitution. Venezuela abolished the death penalty in 1863 and Portugal did so in 1867.
In the United States, the state of Michigan was the first state to ban the death penalty, on March 1, 1847. The 160-year ban on capital punishment has never been repealed, and as such the state is considered to be the first democracy in recorded history to have eliminated capital punishment.
Capital punishment debate
Religious views
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. 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.
Christianity
Although some interpret that John 8:7 of the Bible condemns the death penalty, Christian positions, as on many social issues, vary.
The Roman Catholic Church traditionally supported capital punishment as per the theology of Thomas Aquinas (who accepted the death penalty as a necessary deterrent and prevention method, but not as the means of vengeance), but under the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, this position was reversed. The Roman Catholic Church holds that the death penalty is no longer necessary if it can be replaced by incarceration.
The Lambeth Conference of Anglican and Episcopalian bishops condemned the death penalty in 1988. Some Protestant groups have cited Genesis 9:5-6 and Romans 13:3-4 as the basis for permitting the death penalty .
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 marginalized 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 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (colloquially known as Mormons) hold a neutral position on the death penalty. Consequently, it is difficult to make a case for abolition of the death penalty which is explicitly endorsed.
Hinduism
The ancient Hindu scriptures do not have much mention on the death penalty.
Other religions
The teachings of other religions also tend to discourage death penalty as the means of vengeance but accept it as the means of deterrent and prevention, while the question of the effectiveness of incarceration as a substitute remain outside of theological debate.
Capital punishment in arts and media
As a capital punishment forms a more important thematic element. Damon was sentenced to death (the reader does not learn why) and his friend Pythias offered to take his place.
William Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch also included erotic and surreal depictions of capital punishment.
Capital punishment has been the basis of many motion pictures including Dead Man Walking based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean, The Green Mile, and The Life of David Gale.
In "Justice", a first-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, 15 year old Wesley Crusher inadvertently breaks a trivial law and consequently faces a death sentence.
See also: List of movies about capital punishmentSee List of protest songs for a list of protest songs about capital punishment.
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