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Essay: To Kill A Killer: A Brief History Of Capital Punishment

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Firing squad. Gas chamber. Guillotine Lethal injection. All of these and more are variations of the same thing- capital punishment. According to the Oxford Dictionary, capital punishment is, “The legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime.“ Throughout history, capital punishment has evolved into more humane methods. Capital punishment remains one of the most controversial topics to this day. Nonetheless, it stands as a barbaric method of devaluing humanity of a person and puts a price on human life.

Capital punishment has been around since the eighteenth century B.C. “in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes.”(Death Penalty Information Center) These torture methods range from “cutting off of feet, lips and noses, blinding, gutting and the tearing out of the heart were all standard punishments in this corner of the ancient world.”(Schulz) The death penalty evolved as technology progressed into more gruesome ways.

One of the more well-known death penalties hails from Ancient Greece, called the Brazen Bull. Greece is a country near the Mediterranean Sea which its notorious for it’s philosophers and democracy. The Brazen Bull was designed by an architect, Perillos of Athens, for the tyrant of the Akragas region of Greece, Phalaris. The Brazen Bull was a hollowed-out statue of a bull crafted from bronze. The bull would be positioned over a heat source after the condemned was locked inside, heating up the metal and essentially slow-cooking the criminal to death. The head of the bull was said to have complex pipes and tubes that converted the screams of the criminal into music- “the tenderest, most melodious of bellowings“ according to Perillos himself. It was also reported that the bones of the receiver “shone like jewels and were made into bracelets.”(Milne) The Brazen Bull was an oxymoron considering the fact that the bull was one of the most gruesome methods of Capital Punishment.

Some of the most notorious execution methods derive from the time of King Henry. King Henry VII was the King of England from 1509 to 1547. He ordered out tens of thousands of executions which gave him a reputation. King Henry is also known for having seven wives in which he killed six.  He was extremely arrogant and if a plan or idea didn’t go his way, he would dismiss the rules, and do what pleases him. This is evident when he withdrew from Catholicism and established the Anglican Church because he couldn’t get an anole for his first wife Anne Boleyn.

 The methods King Henry VII employed included pressing, being boiled alive, hanged, drawn, and quartered, being burned, and beheadment. According to historian Jeff Richard, some estimates put the total of Henry VIII's executions at a staggering 72,000 people. Or, to put it into perspective, roughly 2.8% of England and Wales' population at the time.”(Richard) ]

Pressing was execution procedure which consisted of chaining the victim to the ground and positioning a flat piece of board on their chest.  The executioners would place weights on the board and continue to do so until their ribs are broken and the heart is crushed. Being boiled alive is also a terrifyingly method which was cost effective. The executioners put  the inmates into a large cauldron. This would range from a handful of people. They would then fill it with water and light a heat source under the cauldron. The prisoners would die from shock and choking. Shock is when the body becomes overwhelmed from a situation and gives out.

Both King Henry VII and  King Louis XVI, of France had a more gruesome practice of execution: hanged drawn, and quartered. This practice was used for people that committed treason against their homeland. The convict was dragged by a cart towards their execution block. They were hanged until near death, then disemboweled. Finally the criminal, if male, was emasculated.

Beheading is the process of removing one's head using a sharp object, typically a blade. The person who prepares the beheading is the executioner and they usually used a sword for beheading. It was popular due to the fact that it cost effective and it was extremely symbolic. It then evolved into the guillotine which was found by Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin in late 1789. The guillotine was popular in France and is commonly associated with the French Revolution. The French Revolution was the revolt from the French people towards their government. They were known to behead the officials and the most known guillotine execution was King Louis XVI which took place on January 21, 1793. The last known beheading was on September 10, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian murderer was the last person ever to face the death penalty and the guillotine in France. He was executed in Marseille France, a city south of France.

 On the other side of the world, the American Colonist did not have the luxuries of western European royalty. According to Michael. H. Reggio, a prominent American historian, “By the start of the American Revolution, the death penalty was used in all 13 colonies. Rhode Island was the only colony that did not have at least 10 crimes punishable by death. The colonies had “roughly comparable death statutes which covered arson, piracy, treason, murder, sodomy, burglary, robbery, rape, horse-stealing, slave rebellion, and often counterfeiting. Hanging was the usual sentence. Rhode Island was probably the only colony which decreased the number of capital crimes in the late 1700's.”

The colonist did have their own practice of an elementary method of execution, which was hanging. Hanging is when you take a specifically tied rope around your next and jump from a height. Your either die from your neck snapping or from asphyxiation and suffocation. In a colonial hanging a sort of step or box is placed under you. Also, you are placed at a high elevation.You get the noose tied around your neck and you are blindfolded. The executioner then kicks the box under you and you fall to your death.

One hundred and fifty years. The state of Texas, largest state to use capital punishment gets annexed into the United States. With the increase in technology in the United States, with the industrial revolution and the increase in medical studies capital punishment has been increasingly changing. From the start with the hanging of inmates, many other forms started to come further. The electric chair was a method used after the Civil War. The electric chair was a method used that depended on electrocution. The person would be strapped to a wooden chair and have a cap strapped to their head jolts of electricity would be shot through until the person would die and their brains are fried.  The electric chair allowed for easier death to the inmates which helped ease the tensions that arose from capital. With the increase of medical technology in 1977 in Texas, lethal injection was first used. The lethal injection is another practice that deals with chemicals such as “usually sodium thiopental, until pentobarbital was introduced at the end of 2010, pancuronium bromide (a paralytic agent, also called Pavulon), and potassium chloride (stops the heart and causes death).” With this advancement, capital punishment was made easier and quicker with a painless death.

The Furman vs.Georgia case made it capital punishment illegal in 1972. The supreme court in a 5-4 decision stated that the death penalty is unconstitutional and that it violated the Eighth and Fourteenth amendment of the United States. The Eighth amendment states that in America, the government will not tolerate cruel and unusual punishments. The Fourteenth amendment states that all people that are born and/or naturalized in America become citizens of the United States. Because of the inhumane nature of the government killing another human being, the death penalty was scrapped. But with another historic case Gregg v Georgia in 1977 it overturned that previous ruling, giving precedence to all capital punishment, and reinstating the death penalty. What caused the Georgia vs Furman case to become one of the key sticking points in the history of capital punishment in the United States. The issue of Capital Punishment became more contations than ever.

It is a common misconception that juries decide sentencing in a trial. In reality, all the jury usually decides is whether the person on trial is guilty or not. The judge is the one who actually decides the punishment, be it years in jail, fines, or anything else. This is not the case in trials where the prosecution is argues for the death penalty. In death penalty trials, however, it is entirely up to the jury to decide whether the criminal in question deserves to die. Unlike most trials which only require a majority vote among the jurors, capital punishment requires unanimous agreement. In most states, the punishment is more a deterrent than anything else.

 According to law professor Victor Streib, there are 22,000 annual homicides a year, 18,000 arrests and around 300 death sentences, leading to maybe 50 or 60 actual executions a year. Geography seems to be a factor as well; the huge majority of executions since 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment, have happened in the nine Deep South states. These states are Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana and Kansas.  Texas is the reigning champion, with 92 condemnations.

The following statistics may surprise you: black people are six times as likely as white people to go to jail. According to a study by NPR, there are roughly 4,347 black inmates for every 100,000 US residents, whereas there are only 678 white people per 100,000 residents. Oddly enough, however, white people account for the majority of death penalty cases, with 55% of executions. Out of the 3,139 death row inmates in 2010 and 2011, less than half- 1,309 to be exact- were black. The same study by NPR insinuates that this may have something to do with how a jury perceives the person on trial as well as the nature of the crimes committed. Also, men accounted for around 1,325 out of the 3,319- a solid 99% of executions. Only 14 women have been executed. ( Chow, Kat. Who's Waiting On Death Row?)

According to Steven E. Barkan  and Steven F Cohn “many studies have found that Whites are more likely than Blacks to support the death penalty…Using data from the 1990 General Social Survey, this study finds that White support for capital punishment is associated with prejudice against Blacks. Final remarks discuss the implications of the results for legislative and judicial decisions regarding capital punishment.” This further proves that racism in the jury can ultimately dictate whether a person can face the death penalty or not.

The death penalty is inhumane and a terrible method of punishment. James W Marquart, the Author of  The Rope, The Chair, and The Needle says“The calculated killing of a human being by the state involves, by its very nature, an absolute denial of the executed person's humanity. The most vile murder does not, in my view, release the state from constitutional restraint on the destruction of human dignity.”  That being said, the killer deserves to live even though they killed someone. It may cost more in order to take care of the inmate in prison, but ultimately the price of a human life and the age can’t be reversed.

 Due to the circumstances given in a case where capital punishment is needed, there are 3 possible outcomes. The first is a person kills another person on accident, and shouldn’t be charged. This can be easily solved by blood money and little time in prison. Blood money is a term used for when a family wants money for the death of their loved one.  The next situation is when a person dies from another person in rage. This case could be controversial and emotions fly throughout the courtroom. In this instance, rigid thinking is paramount but does not always occur. This sentence can last from 10-15 years in prison and blood money if convicted.  Finally the last situation is a premeditated case. This is a case where a person planned out to kill a person in a specific way. This is definite blood money and long and extensive time in prison.

The death penalty still stands as inhumane due to the fact that you are putting a price on human life. Things such as blood money and emotion have to play role in deciding. If the family of the victim fail to reason, they themselves become killers. It is impossible to put a price on human life. You shouldn’t rape a rapist, burn the house of an arsonist and ultimately kill a killer.

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