Wikipedia

Capital punishment

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Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted felon as a punishment for a crime (often called a capital offence or a capital crime). Historically the judicial execution of criminals and political opponents was a phenomenon of nearly all societies and it was often also used as a means to suppress political dissent. Among democratic countries around the world, counties in most Western nations and Latin America have abolished capital punishment. The United States and democracies in Asia and Africa retain it. Among non democratic countries, use of death penalty is common. The death penalty is sometimes seen as an effective deterrent to crime, but some studies show that life in prison is just as effective.

In most places that practice captial punishment today, the death penalty is reserved as a punishment for certain murders, espionage, or treason. In some majority-Muslim countries, certain sexual crimes, including adultery and sodomy, carry the death penalty. In many countries, drug trafficking is also capital offense and in China, serious case of corruption or human trafficking also recevie death penalty. In militaries around the world, courts-martials have sentenced capital punishments also for cowardice, desertion, insubordination and mutiny.

Terminology

The term "capital" derives from the Latin caput meaning "head".[1] Capital punishment therefore literally means "head punishment", but has been extended to cover all forms of the death penalty rather than just those methods involving decapitation (beheading). A capital offence or capital crime is any crime to which the death penalty applies.

History

The use of formal execution extends back beyond recorded history. In the history of the death penalty, societies have generally progressed (or sometimes regressed) through an identifiable sequence of practices surrounding the death penalty.

  • Tribal practices or blood feuds.
  • Introduction of state-sponsored justice, with use of the death penalty for many crimes.
  • The lex talionis, restricting the death penalty to murder.
  • Abolitionary movements.

All of these phases can still be found in some parts of the world today, although the tendency is towards abolition. Parallel with this progression towards abolition, societies have also experienced developments in concern with the suffering associated with the death penalty. Earlier phases show attempts to maximize suffering. Intermediate phases show attempts to differentiate (maximizing in some cases, minimizing in others): the degree of suffering may have some relation to the person's status in society or the nature of the crime. In later phases, any extraneous (or "cruel and unusual") suffering is considered unethical and execution must be as "humane" as possible. The issues of human sacrifice and entertainment are also important in the history of capital punishment.

Blood feuds

 
Alexander Hamilton fights his fatal duel with Aaron Burr.

The historical origin of the death penalty lies in the practice of the blood feud. Blood feuds (or vendettas) are a form of social control in societies where the state is too weak or underdeveloped to enforce law, or where the state does not exist at all.[2] Responsibility for law enforcement falls to the individual members of society, who may be entitled by tradition to kill those who have threatened the honour of their families. Honour can be threatened by many transgressions (e.g. land disputes). Blood feuds are not an unregulated practice. On the contrary, the traditional rules surrounding blood feuds (such as a code of honour) may be elaborate and rigidly observed. "...revenge can be characterised as a mechanism for social control and maintenance of a balance of power between medium-sized groups which are not subject to any higher central authority. The lack of a guarantor of order and security means that these groups can only ensure long-lasting coexistence by means of an "equilibrium of fear". Acts of revenge 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."[3]

A blood feud may seem primitive and uncivilised by modern standards, but it should be seen as progress compared to the alternatives available in early societies: "Blood feud makes a society safer than it would be if there was no regulation of violence and its use against others." [4] However if disagreement about application of the rules of honour arises, the two sides may get involved in an unending cycle of violence: the "equilibrium of fear" is unstable. Societies have tended to progress away from the state of blood feud if they can.

Key elaborations of the blood feud cultures include the principle of substitution. Just as one life had to be paid for with another in revenge, so one life could be substituted for another in the payment of the blood debt. Blood feud systems include elaborate rules for negotiation and settlement, although the parties might not be willing to settle. Settlement rules can allow for animal blood to replace human blood, or transfers of property or blood money.[5] Blood feuds could be regulated at meetings, such as Viking things.[6] 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.

Sacrifice and entertainment

"All of the people of Gaul are completely devoted to religion, and for this reason those who are greatly affected by diseases and in the dangers of battle either sacrifice human victims or vow to do so using the Druids as administrators to these sacrifices, since it is judged that unless a man's life is given back, the will of the immortal gods cannot be placated." (Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book VI)

Human sacrifice is well documented from the earliest times, but what was the rationale? According to Caesar, for the Celts it was "pro vita hominis nisi hominis vita reddatur" - roughly, "a life for a life". If the gods are displeased with you for a wrongdoing, they demand blood payment and may send a disease to perform the execution. However it is possible to negotiate with the gods and perform a substitution - somebody else's life will pay the blood debt instead. Similarly, there is a risk when going into battle that one might have some unpaid blood debt with the gods, for which reason the gods might ensure defeat and death. So as a safety precaution it was possible to promise the gods an alternative blood payment - presumably the blood of one's enemies, but again as a substitution for one's own blood. See also: Celts and human sacrifice.

 
"Abraham Sacrificing Isaac" by Laurent de LaHire, 1650

In Christian theology the doctrine of substitutionary atonement has a similar logic, but extended to a universal scale. The idea of substitutionary atonement is that humanity (from the dawn of time to the end of time) is sinful and that these sins or wrongdoings require compensation or atonement. The Roman execution of Jesus of Nazareth is interpreted as a self-sacrifice on behalf of humanity. The key biblical texts indicate the idea of one life for many lives.[7] As regards the substitution, Christian theology draws parallels between the crucifixion and the story of how Abraham was permitted to substitute a lamb for his son Isaac when commanded by God to make a devotional sacrifice (the lamb is understood as symbolizing Christ).[8] See also: atonement, substitutionary atonement, propitiation, sacrifice.

File:Mendoza HumanSacrifice.jpg
Aztec sacrifice

Further examples of human sacrifice include the judicial hanging that was originally a sacrificial rite to Odin. Scandinavian religions demanded human sacrifices not only by hanging, but also by drowning the convict in a bog (see Kalevala which contains a chapter where Väinämöinen sentences the fatherless Son of Marjatta to be drowned in a bog; see also bog body, describing the archaeological finds of human sacrifices across Northern Europe). Some societies, such as the Aztec, used mass executions of prisoners of war as a religious rite. The perceived religious or instructive purpose of execution meant that many of the oldest methods of execution were intentionally brutal.

In many cultures the entertainment value of suffering was valued, as seen in Roman executions.

Public executions were the norm until recently, whether atop an Aztec pyramid or on a gallows in the town square. Public executions still occurred in Europe and the United States in the first half of the 20th century and continue to occur in other countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. Public execution can be justified on the grounds that it is important that justice, expecially for the most heinous crimes, is seen to be done. An alternative justification is that the deterrent effect is greater if execution is in public. In practice, public executions have often better served the purposes of entertainment. The practice in some countries of selecting a small group of witnesses, usually including officials and family members of victims, can be seen as a compromise between a public interest in witnessing justice and the avoidance of descending into entertainment.

State-sponsored justice

In 1593 some poor women from Nithsdale travelled up to Edinburgh with the bloody shirts of their husbands, sons and servants who had been slain in a raid by the Johnstones. Carrying these gory objects, they paraded through the burgh exposing the king’s inadequacy in providing protection or justice.[9]

Societies have both progressed and regressed between blood feud and state-sponsored justice in the course of history. Recent studies, for example, have focussed strongly on the current regression into blood-feuding (kanun) in Albania.[10] Detailed statistics measuring the impact of the regression have been published.[11] As the above description of 16th C. Scotland shows, state intervention and regulation is desirable to end the cycle of excessive retaliations often associated with feuding.

The initial response of the state has often been to legislate the death penalty for a wide variety of crimes, and provide appropriate courts. The Pentateuch (Old Testament) lays down the death penalty for kidnapping, magic, violation of the sabbath, blasphemy and a wide range of sexual crimes, although evidence suggests that actual executions were rare.[12] 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. The word draconian derives from Draco's laws. In medieval and early modern Europe, the death penalty was also used as a generalised form of punishment. For example, in 18th C. Britain there were 222 crimes which were punishable by death, including crimes such as cutting down a tree or stealing an animal.[13]

Again, the range of often minor crimes to which the death penalty could be applied is almost universally regarded as unacceptable today. But it must be understood as an improvement on the blood feud. State-sponsored justice ensures that at most only one person (the actual perpetrator) is executed and that the matter ends there. Feuding sends whole families into hiding and impoverishment, with potentially several generations of killing.

Numbers of executions

It should not be assumed that ancient societies necessarily used the death penalty with greater frequency than later ones. For example in England during the Heptarchy (500-850) the maximum punishment for murder was a fine paid by the assassin or his kin to the victim's family (see Weregild). Similar systems existed in Ireland (Ericfine), Wales (Galanas) and Poland (Główczyzna).

Imprisonment may often not have been an option in some societies, but alternative punishments such as enslavement and exile were widely used. At the other end of the scale, in 16th C. Britain, in the reign of Henry VIII alone, it has been estimated that there were as many as 72,000 executions.[14]

The lex talionis

 
Hammurabi receives his laws from Shamash.

The lex talionis (also known by the principle "an eye for an eye") describes criminal law systems in which punishments fit the crime. As applied to the death penalty, application of the lex talionis restricts the range of crimes to murder. While the lex talionis may seem severe from a modern perspective, in its origin it was reformist, involving a liberalisation of penalties compared to previous practices. The earliest known application of the lex talionis for death penalty crimes was in the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BC). A similar example of the reforming introduction of the lex talionis is the Athenian Solon's (638 BC – 558 BC) restriction of the death penalty to murder (a reform of the previous laws instituted by Draco).

Differentiated styles of execution

 
Electric chair as used for electrocutions. The electric chair was developed in the late 1880s by a dentist with support from Thomas Edison (who had a financial interest in having direct current used in providing electricity, whereas the electric chair uses alternating current) and is still in use today.

Some jurisdictions still practicing capital punishment restrict its use to a small number of criminal offences, principally murder, treason and equated mortal sins such as apostasy. Historically—and still today under certain systems of law—the death penalty was applied to a wider range of offences, including robbery or theft and kidnapping. It has also been frequently used by the military for crimes including looting, insubordination, and mutiny. Armies based on conscription have used death penalty as means of motivation (see coercion) and keeping discipline.

Even in ancient times, methods of execution were sometimes chosen so that the extent of suffering during execution was related to the perceived seriousness of the crime or the class and status of the criminal. Roman citizens might be allowed to commit suicide while low class persons might be crucified.

In medieval Europe, the method of execution often depended on the social class of the condemned. The nobility were usually beheaded in as painless and honorable a method as possible, generally with either sword or an axe (which occasionally failed horribly). Those in the working class, serfs, peasants, and possibly the bourgeoisie were usually executed publicly, by a more gruesome and painful method, such as the wheel or being hung, drawn and quartered . In Scandinavia, the noblemen were beheaded with sword and commoners with axe. Specific crimes sometimes warranted specific methods of execution: suspected witchcraft, religious heresy, atheism, or homosexuality were typically punished by burning at the stake. Unsuccessful regicides generally merited a horrible death. A wide range of offences could be punished by death, including robbery and theft, even if nobody was physically harmed in the action.

 
Damiens

Such methods of execution continued into the modern era. In 1757 in France, Robert-François Damiens suffered a horrible but customary execution for his attempted regicide against King Louis XV. His hand, holding the weapon used in the regicide attempt, was burnt, and his body was wounded in several places. Then, molten lead and other hot liquids were poured on the wounds. He was then drawn and quartered, and what remained of his body was burnt at the stake. Inhumane methods of execution and class inequalities were abolished in France during the French Revolution, which imposed the guillotine, seen as a painless and instantaneous method of execution, for all. However, during The Terror, other forms of execution, such as massed cannon fire and mass drownings, were also used.

Movements towards "humane" execution

 
Dr. Guillotin

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 [15] and remarks by local preachers [16] 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." [17]

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 the neck until dead", which causes death by suffocation was replaced by "hanging" where the subject is dropped to dislocate the neck and sever the spinal cord. In the U.S., electrocution and the gas chamber, which were introduced as more humane alternatives to hanging, have been almost entirely superceded 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 stoning is rarely employed.

See also: cruel and unusual punishment

Abolitionary movements

File:Beccaria.jpg
Marquis of Beccaria

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 2000 Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to commemorate the event.

In 1849, the Roman Republic became the first country to ban the capital punishment in its constitutions. Portugal abolished the death penalty in 1867; the last execution had taken place in 1846.

In the United States, the state of Michigan was the first state to ban the death penalty, on March 1, 1847. The 150-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. Currently, 12 states and the District of Columbia ban capital punishment.

The death penalty worldwide

Global Distribution of Death Penalty

 
Use of the death penalty around the world.
Blue: Abolished for all offences. 79
Light blue: Abolished for all offences except under special circumstances. 15
Green: Not used for at least 10 years. 23
Orange: Only used for adults. 70
Red: Also used for juveniles. 8

Report from NGOs opposed to death penalty tend to indicate that abolition is a global trend. In 1977, 16 countries were abolitionist while in 2005, 86 countries were abolitionist. In more detail, 79 countries have abolished capital punishment for all offenses, 15 countries abolished it for all offences except under special circumstances, and 23 countries have not used it for at least 10 years. 78 countries retain it. Among retentionist cuntries, 8 countries used capital punishment for juveniles (under 18). According to Amnesty international, China, Iran, Vietnam and U.S. perform 97% of global executions, though the presentation of statistics is accused of being slated to associate U.S. with authoritarian states because it fails to include Singapore, which has more execution than U.S. Moreover, removing U.S. has no noticeable effect on the overall statistics. China perform more than 3400 execution which amount to more than 90% of global executions. In China, some inmates are executed by firing squad; however, it has been decided that all the execution will be done by lethal injections in the future. Iran performed 159 executions. This include several executions of homosexuals and what the state consider as "adulterers" (which includes victim of rape). The United States performed 59 executions and is most prolific among developed nation. Singapore has the highest rate with 70 executions within about 4 million population.

In demographic term, many retentionist countries have large populations and high population growth. Relative demographic proportion between retentionist and abolitionist tend to show underlying trend of increase in retentonist which is periodically shift in abolitionist favour when some countries switch to abolitionist. However, it is important to note that use of death penalty is becoming more restrained in retentionist states, which is often masked by the population growth which might nontheless increase the number of execution being carried out. During most of the cold war period, Japan and U.S. were the only developed countries to retain the death penalty. The death penalty was overwhelmingly practiced in poor, undemocratic and authoritarian states, which often employed death penalty as a tool of political oppression. During the past twenty years, democratisation and rapid economic growth in number of developing countries changed this. During the 1980s, democratisation of Latin America (with its long history of progressive and Catholic tradition) swelled the rank of abolitionist countries. This was soon followed by the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, which then aspired to emulate neighbouring Western Europe. In these countries, the public support for the death penalty is low and/or decreasing. Moreover, the European Union is gradually removing the issue of death penalty from being decided by popular consensus. On the other hand, democratisation and rapid industrialisation in Asia has been increasing the number of retentionist countires which are democratic and/or developed. In these countries, the death penalty enjoys strong public support and the matter receives little attention from the legistrature. This trend has been followed by democratisation in some African and Middle Eastern coutries where the support for the death penalty is also high. On one hand, the current global trend of democratisation and economic growth increases the possibility that some countries may abolish the death penalty by democratic processes, while at the same time, the increasing number of democracies which are retentionist may weaken the association of the death penalty with political and economic repression.

Public opinion

Support for the death penalty varies widely. It is a highly contentious political issue in U.S. partly because it is a part of culture war. In other democracies, this is not the case for both side. Both democracies in abolitionist Europe and retentionist Asia, the policy has wide public support and receive little attention by politicians. However, it ought to be noted that, in some abolitionist coutries, majority of public support or has supported the death penalty. The abolition was often brought in by the political settlement such as when coutries shifted from authoritarianism to democracy, or it become entry condition for European Union. In Western Europe, it was initially brought in by moratorium on death penalty which later become defact ban on death penalty. It was rare for the death penalty to be abolished due to the activie public discussion about the validity of death penalty.

In abolitionist countries, debate is sometimes revived by particularly brutal murders, though few countries have brought it back after abolition. Some opinion polls in Europe and Canada suggest that the death penalty has similar support there to the United States. Other polls show that Western European support of the death penalty dropped significantly in the years after abolition. In most former communist countries there is still a majority for reintroduction. In retentionist coutries, debate is sometimes revived when miscarrage of justice occurs, though, this tend to cause legistrative effort to "improve" judicial process rather than to abolish the death penalty. However, the use of death penalty are increasingly being restrained in these countries which is often attributed as a main cause of high public support of death penalty in countries such as Korea, Japan or Taiwan.

An International Gallup poll undertaken in 2000 found that 60% of western Europeans opposed the death penalty. In France, a TNS Sofres poll revealed that twenty years after abolition of capital punishment, 49% of respondents opposed reintroduction of the policy compared with 44% who wanted to reinstate capital punishment. In 2000, a poll in Germany found the percentage of West Germans in favor of capital punishment at just 23% the lowest level in Europe. Just 37% of East Germans favored capital punishment in 2000. (Financial Times, August 22, 2003) A recent poll in Italy showed only 23% of respondents in favour of the death penalty. [18]

In U.S, polls show a majority support for death penalty. A Gallup Poll in 2005 found that 64% of the public voted in favor of capital punishment, and 56% prefer death penalty to life imprisonment.[19] The most popular alternative to capital punishment was "life without parole" and some form of restitution to the families of victims.[20] A Harris Poll in 2004 concluded that 69% of Americans support the death penalty whilst only 22% were against. 41% of people believed that it detered murder while 53% stated that there was not much effect. 36% of people believed that there should be more executions versus 21% favoring a decrease.[21]

International organizations

A number of international conventions prohibit the death penalty, most notably the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights. However, such conventions bind only those that are party to them; international law does not prohibit the death penalty.

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. 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 use of it since becoming a member of the Council. Another example is Latvia which entered a moratorium in 1996. Latvia retains the death penalty in extraordinary circumstances (as does non-EU-member Albania), and is the only EU member not to have ratified the 13th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (which prohibits the death penalty in all circumstances). Latvia's parliament has, however, signed the 13th Protocol. As an EU member Latvia has pledged to abolish the death penalty.

Turkey has recently, as a move towards EU membership, undergone a reform of its legal system. 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 as 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 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 US and Japan, to abolish it or lose their observer status.

Among non-governmental organisations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are noted for their opposition to the death penalty.

Military

Military organizations have sometimes employed capital punishment. In the past, cowardice, absence without leave, desertion, insubordination, looting, shirking under enemy fire and disobeying orders were often crimes punishable by death. The method of execution since firearms came into common use has almost invariably been firing squad. Today most armies no longer utilize capital punishment, and those armies which still retain the death penalty apply it only to the most serious crimes, such as treason or murder.

Juvenile capital punishment

Only six countries practice the death penalty for juveniles, that is, criminals aged under 18 years at the time of their crime. In the 1980s and 1990s, most executions for juvenile crime took place in the United States, although, due to the slow process of appeals, no one under age 19 has been executed in recent years.[22] In 2005, the US Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that the death penalty cannot be applied to persons who were under age 18 at the time of commission of the crime. That decision resulted in 72 convicted murderers being taken off death row. In the US and ancestor bodies politic since 1642, an estimated 364 juvenile offenders have been executed by states and the federal government.[23] Although the People's Republic of China accounts for the vast majority of executions in the world, it does not allow for the executions of those under 18.[24] Execution of those aged under age 18 has occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Iran since 1990. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which among other things forbids capital punishment for juveniles, has been signed and ratified by all countries except the USA and Somalia [25]. Furthermore some, such as the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, maintain that the death penalty for juveniles has become contrary to customary international law.

The death penalty in specific countries

See also: Use of death penalty worldwide

Debate

Main article: Capital punishment debate

The death penalty is often the subject of controversy. In countries in which it is practiced there are often rival campaigns both to have it abolished and to have it retained, while in abolitionist nations some support its reintroduction. Opponents of the death penatly commonly argue that it is an ineffective deterrent, that it may lead to irreversible miscarriages of justice, or that it violates the criminal's right to life. Supporters commonly insist that the penalty is justified, at least for murderers, by the principle of retribution or "just deserts", or that it is, in fact, an effective and necessary deterrent. Some arguments revolve around empirical data, such as whether or not it can be proven statistically that the death penalty reduces crime, while others concern more abstract moral judgements. Most major religions do not take an unambiguous stance on whether or not the death penalty is permissable.

Methods of execution

See also: List of methods of capital punishment

Recent events and cases in the death penalty debate

  • The Houston Chronicle reported on November 19, 2005 that a man named Ruben Cantu probably was innocent of the crime for which he was executed in Texas in 1993. [26]

The death penalty in arts and media

Art

 
Executions of the Third of May by Goya

The electric chair was used to promote the electric industry in the early days of its inception and was by 1971 an icon of Americana. Andy Warhol famously depicted the electric chair in his 1971 screenprint series. The image was repeatedly printed in a range of colors including pink, blue and yellow. Warhol's art often demonstrated a preoccupation with death, and dealt directly with the commercialisation of violence and the ease with which modern technology had made killing possible.

Malaquias Montoya is an artist and professor of art at the University of California, Davis. His works of art dealing with the death penalty occasionally tour in a show entitled "Premeditated: Meditations on Capital Punishment, Recent Works by Malaquias Montoya". [27]

Literature

In the short story by Edgar Allen Poe, The Black Cat, the narrator is writing the day before he is put to death.

In The Stranger (L'Etranger) by Albert Camus, the main character is sentenced to death for shooting and killing an Arab on the beach.

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.

In The Chamber by John Grisham, a young lawyer tries to save a klansman on death row who is awaiting his execution in the gas chamber.

In An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, the main character is sentenced to be hanged, but escapes back to his home. Near the end of his journey, it is shown that his entire escape sequence was a vision in the seconds before the rope breaks his neck. There have been at least three film adaptations.


Film

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.


Music

Music in reference to the death penalty is often associated with heavy metal. Notable songs include Iron Maiden's "Hallowed be thy Name" and Metallica's "Ride the Lightning."

TV

  • On the television drama The West Wing episode called "Take This Sabbath Day", President Bartlet and his senior staff face the moral and political struggle associated with the death penalty.
  • The TV Show Prison Break is about a man trying to save his brother from the death penalty.

Notes

  1. ^ Etymology of "capital"
  2. ^ e.g.: Peter Waldmann (1999). "Rachegewalt: Zur Renaissance eines für überholt gehaltenen Gewaltmotivs in Albanien und Kolumbien" (PDF). Zürcher Beiträge zur Sicherheitspolitik und Konfliktforschung. 54: 141–160. - article covers general work in the area of blood feuds and then discusses the resurgence of the blood feud in Albania and Columbia; also: Jonas Grutzpalk. "Blood Feud and Modernity: Max Weber's and Émile Durkheim's Theories" (PDF). Journal of Classical Sociology. 2 (2): 115–134.
  3. ^ Translated from Waldmann, op.cit., p.147.
  4. ^ Grutzpalk, op.cit., p.117.
  5. ^ Examples of detailed studies of particular feud systems are: Monalinda E. Doro (2005). "Case Studies on Rido: Conflict Resolution among Meranao in Baloi, Lanao del Norte" (PDF): –. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - rido is the local term for blood feud; the ___location named is in the Philippines on the island of Mindanao; also: John Lindow (1994). "Bloodfeud and Scandinavian Mythology" (PDF). Alvíssmál. 4: 51–68.
  6. ^ Lindow, op.cit. (primarily discusses Icelandic things).
  7. ^ 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 and 1 Peter 2:24.
  8. ^ Genesis 22.
  9. ^ {{cite book}}: Empty citation (help), p.29, quoted in: Lindow, op.cit.
  10. ^ e.g.: University College London News (2004), Research on blood feuds in Albania and Kosovo; Template:News reference
  11. ^ e.g.: UK Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Albania (12 January 2006), esp. pp.4-5: "As a result of blood feuds in 2004, 670 families were self-imprisoned, 650 families accepted legal procedures instead of personal vendettas for resolving the conflict, 54 families were living under protection outside the country and 160 children were prevented from attending school due to fear of revenge, of which 73 were considered to be in serious danger. These figures showed a decrease over 2003 when 1,370 families were reported to be self-imprisoned at home and 711 children prevented from attending school due to fear of revenge."
  12. ^ . ISBN 052181491X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |Chapter=, |Others=, |Editor=, |Authorlink=, |Pages=, and |Year= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |First= ignored (|first= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Last= ignored (|last= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ Michigan State University and Death Penalty Information Center
  14. ^ Michigan State University and Death Penalty Information Center
  15. ^ Sermon preached before the execution of Caleb Adams
  16. ^ Caleb Adams' life-story as told by a local pastor
  17. ^ Article from the Connecticut Courant (December 1, 1803)
  18. ^ Death Penalty Information Center, "Recent Developments in the Juvenile Death Penalty".
  19. ^ Rob Gallagher, Table of juvenile executions in British America/United States, 1642-1959.
  20. ^ Death Penalty Information Center, "Recent Developments in the Juvenile Death Penalty"; Death Penalty Information Center, "International Perspectives on the Death Penalty", citing "As China Signs Rights Treaty, It Holds Activist", New York Times (October 6, 1998).
  21. ^ UNICEF, Convention of the Rights of the Child - FAQ: "The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely and rapidly ratified human rights treaty in history. Only two countries, Somalia and the United States, have not ratified this celebrated agreement. Somalia is currently unable to proceed to ratification as it has no recognized government. By signing the Convention, the United States has signalled its intention to ratify—but has yet to do so."
  22. ^ Angus Reid Consultants, "Italians Opposed to Death Penalty" (Opinion poll published in October 2005)
  23. ^ Death Penalty Information Center, "Public Opinion About the Death Penalty"
  24. ^ Death Penalty Information Center, "GALLUP POLL: Public Divided Between Death Penalty and Life Imprisonment Without Parole" (June 2004)
  25. ^ Death Penalty Information Center, "Public Opinion About the Death Penalty"
  26. ^ Harris Poll, "More Than Two-Thirds of Americans Continue to Support the Death Penalty" (January 2004)

Resources opposing capital punishment

Resources favouring capital punishment

Religious views on the death penalty


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