Early History of the Death Penalty

Early Death Penalty Laws

The first estab­lished death penal­ty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which cod­i­fied the death penal­ty for 25 dif­fer­ent crimes. The death penal­ty was also part of the Fourteenth Century B.C.‘s Hittite Code; in the Seventh Century B.C.‘s Draconian Code of Athens, which made death the only pun­ish­ment for all crimes; and in the Fifth Century B.C.‘s Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets. Death sen­tences were car­ried out by such means as cru­ci­fix­ion, drown­ing, beat­ing to death, burn­ing alive, and impalement.

In the Tenth Century A.D., hang­ing became the usu­al method of exe­cu­tion in Britain. In the fol­low­ing cen­tu­ry, William the Conqueror would not allow per­sons to be hanged or oth­er­wise exe­cut­ed for any crime, except in times of war. This trend would not last, for in the Sixteenth Century, under the reign of Henry VIII, as many as 72,000 peo­ple are esti­mat­ed to have been exe­cut­ed. Some com­mon meth­ods of exe­cu­tion at that time were boil­ing, burn­ing at the stake, hang­ing, behead­ing, and draw­ing and quar­ter­ing. Executions were car­ried out for such cap­i­tal offens­es as mar­ry­ing a Jew, not con­fess­ing to a crime, and treason.

The num­ber of cap­i­tal crimes in Britain con­tin­ued to rise through­out the next two cen­turies. By the 1700s, 222 crimes were pun­ish­able by death in Britain, includ­ing steal­ing, cut­ting down a tree, and rob­bing a rab­bit war­ren. Because of the sever­i­ty of the death penal­ty, many juries would not con­vict defen­dants if the offense was not seri­ous. This lead to reforms of Britain’s death penal­ty. From 1823 to 1837, the death penal­ty was elim­i­nat­ed for over 100 of the 222 crimes pun­ish­able by death. (Randa, 1997)

The Death Penalty in America

Britain 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 record­ed 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 enact­ed 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.

Laws regard­ing 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 effect 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 pun­ish­able by death. (Randa, 1997)