Capital Punishment Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Capital Punishment - Term Paper Example From the research it can be comprehended that the doctrine of birth and death are the most obvious and the unpredictable events in the Nature. Since time immemorial such has been the nature of occurrence. With the spread of civilizations, the greed and lust of mankind reached an epitome and uncontrolled desire of achievement lead to loss of human values. The seriousness of the degradation leads to crimes, wars, battles and loss of innumerable human life. The concept of punishment came into existence among humans and even life of people was not spared in providing penalty for their ill deeds. The age –old theory of capital punishment was immensely popular among the Phoenicians, Persian, Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Chinese civilization, where the brutal act of convict prosecution was done by taking away their life. The process of killing was carried out in horrendous fashion, which turned the punishment to be more excruciating. Modes of capital punishment were innovated with diff erent procedures and the shameful act was carried out unremittingly. Ironically the modern era also did portray their interest and used modern technologies to kill the convicts in atrocious manner. Significantly the act of capital punishment was even carried among the juveniles till the last decade, and surprisingly the proclaimed super power developed nations of the world were a part of this severe in-humanitarian policy. Thesis Statement Capital punishment should be abolished from the world and in particular the act of juvenile capital punishment needs to be barred, as this extreme measure does not preclude the miscreants from committing further crimes. Capital punishment: A brief history The history of Capital punishment or death penalty is quite enriched with events and the start of the timeline of capital punishment begins in eighteenth century in Babylon under the regime of King Hammaurabi. The law related to death penalty covered 25 different crimes. Crucifixion, drowning, im palement, beating to death were some of the measures of providing capital punishment. In the sixteenth century, burning, beheading, drawing and quartering carried out executions. 222 crimes were listed under the execution of capital punishment in Britain, which even included mere acts of cutting down a tree. Lingering death was provided to the serious convicts on account of heinous crime where as lesser degree of criminal acts by the convicts resulted in quick and painless death (Introduction to the death penalty, n.d). In China during the medieval period many cases of death through thousand cuts and slow slicing were noted. The colonist in America induced the capital punishment in the state and 12 capital crimes were identified. The range of capital punishment varied across different part of the states. Some of the states provided limited control. The Northern colony limited its use. Idolatry, blasphemy, traitors were dealt under the jurisdiction of capital punishment. In spite of the less enthusiasm followed in some parts of America regarding capital punishment, but the massive colonization in America made capital punishment popular all over the country. The major reason cited for the implementation of capital punishment was to control the rate of occurrence of crime. However in the end of eighteenth century, only incidents of first-degree murders were punished till death. In the southern states the punishment was imposed to control on the actions of slaves. Evidence of racial discrimination prevailed in the process of atonement as the white people committing same sort of acts was relieved by mere compensation whereas the law of capital punishment was enforced on the other civilians of the society. The age-old tradition of capital punishment continued to leave its impact in the present modern era. Boundary of capital punishment though reduced and imposed on serious crimes, new methods were invented to carry on with the execution. Guillotine, Gas chambers, el ectric chairs, lethal injections became popular as modes of homicides. The incidents of capital punish