Difference between revisions of "Capital punishment"

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-'''Capital Punishment''', also known as the death penalty, refers to the custom of executing prisoners who are convicted of certain crimes. Such crimes are known as capital crimes, and tend to be grave crimes against persons (such as [[premeditation|premeditated]] [[murder]] or [[rape]]) or [[treason]].
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-== In the world today ==
-Of the developed main countries, only the [[United States]], [[China]] and [[Japan]] use capital punishment. Several European countries and [[Canada]] have gone so far as to outlaw the practice. In the non-developed world, it is practiced in most Shari'a states (those whose legal systems are based on the [[Muslim]] legal philosophy), as well as many others.<ref>EU: [http://www.eurunion.org/legislat/deathpenalty/EurHRConvProt13Decl.htm Concerning the Abolition of the Death Penalty in all Circumstances]</ref><ref>Encarta: [http://encarta.msn.com/media_461543496/Capital_Punishment_Worldwide.html Capital Punishment Worldwide]</ref>
-According to officially released governmental figures, leftist [[Amnesty International]] estimates that Singapore has the highest execution rate in the world, at 13.65 hangings per 1,000,000 residents.  Saudi Arabia has the second-highest rate, at 4.65 per 1,000,000.
-=== In the United States ===
-Capital punishment in the United States is handled on a state-by-state basis, and several states' laws do not allow for executions.
-[[Pennsylvania]] has hundreds of people on death row, though only three inmates have been executed since the reinstatement of capital punishment laws. In [[Texas]] One man has been on death row for 31 years.<ref>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-deathrow28jan28,1,1271967.story?coll=la-headlines-nation</ref>
-Appeals and stays of execution can create a backlog on death row's in many states.
-Though the United States suspended the death penalty in 1973, it was reinstated in 1977. 65% of Americans believe putting someone to death for a crime is acceptable, according to a recent poll.  But respondents were close to evenly split on whether they would prefer the death penalty (50%) to mandatory life in prison (46%).  The death penalty is most favored by age 30+ males who are Caucasian and [[Republican]].<ref>ABC News/Washington Post poll: [http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/1015a3DeathPenalty.pdf Death Penalty]</ref>
-==Deterrent==
-Some studies conducted since the start of the new millennium have consistently shown a deterence factor in the United States based on use of the death penalty.  It has been calculated that each person executed saves the lives of anywhere from 3 to 18 innocent people.<ref>Studies: Death penalty discourages crime  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,280215,00.html</ref> However - other studies have shown as a whole, "death-penalty states" typically have higher murder rates than states that have outlawed capital punishment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?&did=1705#STATES%20WITH%20THE%20DEATH%20PENALTY%20V.%20STATES%20WITHOUT|format=HTML|work=Death Penalty Information Center|language=English|title=Deterrence|accessdate=2007-08-21}}</ref>
-==== Methods in the United States ====
-[[Lethal injection]] is the official method of capital punishment in almost all of the 38 states that have the death penalty. A few states allow for other methods in some circumstances. [[Nebraska]] is the only state of these that does not have lethal injection. [[Electrocution]] is the official method of execution there. Several botched electrocutions in [[Florida]] in the 1990s have effectively put an end to the era of the [[electric chair]], which was the most common means of execution in the United States before 1972. In addition to these two methods of execution, lethal gas, hanging, and shooting have all been used at least twice since 1977. Both firing squads were conducted in [[Utah]], most recently in 1996. The three hangings took place in [[Washington]] and [[Delaware]], most recently Billy Bailey's 1996 hanging in Delaware. The [[gas chamber]], which has been abandoned because it has been found to normally lead to slow, gruesome deaths, has been used in [[California]], [[Arizona]], [[Nevada]], [[Mississippi]], and [[North Carolina]] since 1977. Walter LeGrand's 1999 execution in Arizona's gas chamber will almost certainly be the last of this type. The United States has never used the [[guillotine]], which was very popular in [[France]]. The last use of the guillotine in France was in 1977. Thereafter, capital punishment in France was abolished.
-===In Canada===
-[[Canada]] does not employ capital punishment, and it has not been a possible sentence in Canada since 1998.
-Canada long employed capital punishment as a punishment for [[murder]] or [[treason]], typically executing prisoners by [[long drop hanging|long drop]] [[hanging]] in the case of civilians, and by [[firing squad]] in the case of soldiers or other military. (In particular, 25 soldiers were executed for various crimes during [[World War I]].) Canada had several notorious executioners, particularly [[Arthur B. English]], also known as "Arthur Ellis", after whom [[Arthur Ellis Awards|a Canadian literary award]] for mystery writing is named.
-While Canada's use of capital punishment was inherited from the legal system of the [[United Kingdom]], opposition to capital punishment began to arise in the late 1950s, and came to a head in 1959, when [[Steven Truscott]], a 14-year-old boy, was convicted of murder, with a recommendation from the [[jury]] for mercy. The judge passed down a sentence of execution by hanging, then the only legal punishment for murder in Canada.
-While Truscott's death sentence would later be commuted in 1960, his case galvanized public opinion, and in 1961 Canada reclassified capital murder, defining it as a murder that involved [[premeditation]], murder during the commission of a violent crime, or the murder of a [[police officer]] or [[prison guard]]. This marked the beginning of the decline of capital punishment in Canada, as the last executions would be in [[December]], 1962. The government of Canada routinely [[commutation|commuted]] any death sentence passed thereafter (indeed, the [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal Party]] made opposition to capital punishment a part of their [[platform (politics)|platform]]).
-In 1976, this [[de facto]] state of affairs became law, when the [[Parliament (Canada)|Canadian Parliament]] abolished the use of capital punishment under the [[Criminal Code (Canada)|Criminal Code]]. Executions were still permitted under the [[National Defense Act (Canada)|National Defense Act]] until 1998, when they were similarly abolished.
-Currently, Canada's [[Supreme Court of Canada|Supreme Court]] does not allow the [[extradition]] of criminals who may be executed for their crimes.
-==Religious views of capital punishment==
-===Christianity===
-==== Biblical View ====
-The [[Old Testament]] of the [[Bible]] has several passages that recommend the death penalty for different offenses.
-According to the Old Testament, these are the offenses which merit the [[death penalty]]:
-# [[Murder]] ([[Exodus]] 21:12, 21:15)
-# Kidnapping to sell into slavery ([[Exodus]] 21:16)
-# Cursing Parents ([[Exodus]] 21:17)
-# Bestiality ([[Leviticus]] 20:15)
-# Desecrating the [[Sabbath]] ([[Exodus]] 31:15)
-# [[Adultery]] ([[Leviticus]] 20:10, [[Leviticus]] 19:20)
-# Sacrificing children to Molech ([[Leviticus]] 20:2)
-# [[Blasphemy]] ([[Leviticus]] 24:16)
-# Incest ([[Leviticus]] 20:11)
-# [[Homosexual]] intercourse ([[Leviticus]] 18:22, 20:13)
-# [[Witchcraft]] ([[Exodus]] 22:18, [[Leviticus]] 20:27)
-# False [[Prophecy]] ([[Deuteronomy]] 13:5)
-# Worshiping a false god ([[Deuteronomy]] 13:6-10)
-# Sex with a woman betrothed to another ([[Deuteronomy]] 22:25)
-# False witness in a capital crime ([[Deuteronomy]] 19:16-20)
-# Daughter of a priest becoming a prostitute ([[Leviticus]] 21:9)
-# Juvenile delinquency ([[Deuteronomy]] 21:18-21)
-# Sacrificing to false gods ([[Exodus]] 22:20)
-# Un[[chastity]] ([[Deuteronomy]] 22:21-24)
-Few people support capital punishment for non-murder offenses, and a number of Christians oppose the death penalty in all cases. Apologist [[JP Holding]] argues that the Bible including the [[New Testament]] nowhere repudiates the use of capital punishment, but that it does not necessarily mandate its use, either. <ref>http://www.tektonics.org/af/cappun.html</ref>
-==== Catechism of the Catholic Church====
-While not specifically saying it should be banned in all cases, the Catholic Church favors life over capital punishment as it gives the chance for redemption.
-The State's effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human rights and the fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of watching over the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime. the primary scope of the penalty is to redress the disorder caused by the offense. When his punishment is voluntarily accepted by the offender, it takes on the value of expiation. Moreover, punishment, in addition to preserving public order and the safety of persons, has a medicinal scope: as far as possible it should contribute to the correction of the offender.
-The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.
-"If, instead, bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.
-"Today, in fact, given the means at the State's disposal to effectively repress crime by rendering inoffensive the one who has committed it, without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself, cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender 'today ... are very rare, if not practically non-existent.'<ref>[John Paul II, Evangelium vitae 56.]http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P7Z.HTM</ref>
-== See also ==
-*[[Culture of life]]
-*[[Guillotine]]
-*[[Hanging]]
-*[[Lethal injection]]
-==Further reading==
-*[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55990 Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy], By Michael Ireland, ''WorldNetDaily,com'', June 2, 2007.
-==References==
-<references/>
-[[category:politics]]
-[[category:law]]

Difference between revisions of "Capital punishment"

Revision as of 02:50, August 22, 2007

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