Early History

Capital punishment can be defined by Oxford Languages as “the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime.” Capital punishment is not a completely modernized term; this form of punishment dates back to ancient times. In those periods, death penalty laws were mainly established through codes, notably the Eighteenth Century B.C.’s Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which outlined the execution for 25 different crimes, and the Fifth Century B.C’s Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets. The sentences were particularly brutal, including methods like impalement and burning alive. 

Britain

Fast forwarding to the Tenth Century AD, executions in Britain were carried out by hanging from the gallows. The century after, William the Conqueror attempted to control the amount of executions, limiting the death penalty to only crimes committed during war. However, this mindset did not last as history can clearly prove. Under the rule of Henry VIII in the Sixteenth Century, over 72,000 people are estimated to have been executed. Until the 1800s, capital punishment for crimes continued to increase. By then around 222 crimes were punishable by death. Juries started refusing to convict defendants because of the severe punishments and this led to the emergence of aggressive reforms. In the time period between 1823 and 1837, capital punishment for over half of the 222 crimes were abolished.

The Colonies

In can be argued that Britain heavily influenced the practice of capital punishment in the American colonies. The first recorded execution in the colonies took place in 1608 in Virginia. A mere four years later, the Virginia governor Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral, and Martial Laws. These laws were extremely severe and made the punishment death for crimes such as stealing grapes and trading with Native Americans. 

A notable time period is the implementation of the Capital Laws of New England from 1636-1647, practiced in mainly Massachusetts. In this time, the death penalty was the approved punishment for around 15 crimes. These laws may have deterred settlers from living in Massachusetts and negatively affected the economy. Historian George Haskins states that the “onset of war in 1642, together with the colony's growing reputation for intolerance, not only discouraged new settlers but even caused many of the colonists to return to England or settle elsewhere. These developments had a profound effect on the economy of the colony.” Massachusetts quite certainly felt the long term effects of this as by 1780, they only recognized seven capital crimes: murder, sodomy, burglary, buggery, arson, rape, and treason.

Two colonies that are considered to have had a more lenient implementation to capital punishment were Pennsylvania and South Jersey. South Jersey only recognized two crimes for the death penalty: murder and treason. In the past Pennsylvania did have a harsh code commissioned under the Crown, but the Great Act of Pennsylvania in 1682 shortened the list of crimes for execution. 

Through 1776 and 1800, reforms of the death penalty took place. In Virginia, Thomas Jefferson led the scrutiny of Virginia’s laws. He proposed a law that enacted the death penalty for solely murder and treason. The bill was defeated by a mere one vote. However, literature had an immense impact on the colonies. The works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Bentham, all great European theorists and On Crimes and Punishment by Cesare Beccaria published in 1767, all affected the American view on capital punishment. Organizations to abolish the death penalty began to form, and slowly, colonies started passing reform bills

Modern America

From 1833-1853, public executions started becoming somewhat of a spectacle. As a result, many states enacted laws for private executions. This decision caused an outcry among death penalty abolitionists because they thought that public executions would eventually cause people to rally against the cruelness of it. In 1846, Michigan became the first state to outlaw the death penalty for all crimes against treason. This was mainly due to the fact that Michigan did not have a long history of execution unlike other states. Rhode Island and Wisconsin soon followed with the abolition of capital punishment. 

The Second Great Reform Era took place between 1895 and 1917. Congress passed a bill in 1897 reducing the amount of federal crimes that qualified for the death penalty. From 1907-1917 nine states abolished the death penalty for all crimes except rape. However, at the start of the 1920s, the abolition movement against the death penalty slowed. Washington, Arizona, and Oregon reinstated capital punishment. Abolition movements sprang up across the United States, but soon failed. Concerns on what methods were used to end life erupted after a series of botched executions in many states, but most states compromised for this by switching their methods to death by electric chair or cyanide gas. Nevertheless, the movement again gained steam in 1955. Foreign countries started composing detailed studies critical of the death penalty and these ended up being circulated across the country. Death row inmates started giving their own views on their punishment and these were often brutally honest, shedding a new perspective on capital punishment in America. Politicians were forced to take sides as controversy regarding the death penalty seized the country and as a result, states hopped back and forth on abolishing it. Abolitionists soon realized that going state by state was hopeless as state law regarding capital punishment seemed to change with the year. They decided to attack a different front: the courts. Their first victory was in 1972, with the case of Furman v. Georgia. The Supreme Court ruled that “the way capital punishment laws were written, including discriminatory sentencing guidelines, capital punishment was cruel and unusual and violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.” This successfully terminated the use of the death penalty across America. 

On the other hand, advocates tried their own method of reigniting capital punishment. They tried to pass new “statues” that would combat the discrimination of the death penalty, satisfying state and federal courts. This led to 30 states reinstating capital punishment and the Supreme Court to decide that the “death penalty was not always cruel and unusual punishment” in the case of Gregg v. Georgia. Executions were free to start once more. Moreover, in 1977, Oklahoma passed a law legalizing the form of execution that is widely used today: lethal injection. This was done mainly for the economic and humanitarian aspects. 

Even in the 21st century, controversy with the death penalty continues. Politicians call for more frequent measures of the death penalty. Even with this movement, however, the death penalty has been carried out less than in past decades. With 2020, capital punishment reached an all time low, mainly because of the pandemic and the protests for racial justice. Over half of the ones that did take place were at the federal level. The Trump administration drastically increased the number of federal executions, adding more fuel to the protest. Racial justice came into play as well, as notable African-Americans (mainly Nathaniel Woods and Dustin Higgs), were executed in late 2020 and early 2021 respectively. Their sentences were controversial, causing a public outcry at the fairness of capital punishment. Currently, in 2021, the death penalty is authorized in only 27 states, a drastic change from 38 states at the start of the century.     

SOURCES

The death penalty in 2020: Year end report. Death Penalty Information Center.(n.d.). 

Early history of the death penalty. Death Penalty Information Center. (n.d.). 

Public Broadcasting Service. (n.d.). History of the death penalty. PBS.