Capital punishment, or the death penalty is a form of execution used on criminals as a punishment for a crime. The death penalty has been dated as far back as 18th Century B.C. The death penalty was arranged systematically for twenty-five different crimes.by the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon. Death penalty sentences during that time were usually executed by drowning, being burned alive, crucifixion, and even impalement. America’s influence of the death penalty came from the British when European settlers came brought their exercise of capital punishment. Captain George Kendall was the first to be executed in Jamestown, Virginia in 1608 because he was a spy for Spain. After this Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale proposed the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, in 1612, which sentenced people for minor crimes such as stealing food, killing small animals, and even for trading with Indians. From then on laws concerning the death penalty varied based on the colony.
For numerous years the death penalty has been a controversial topic. Today, many countries have eliminated it as a form of punishment, and those that haven’t, only sentence people to death for the most serious crimes. No matter how evil the crime is or how offensive the criminal is some people
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Some scholars believe that death doesn’t pertain to rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is the act of restoring something back to its original intent. Scholars believe that the irrelevance of rehabilitation in relation to the death penalty is because our definition of it has changed. Rehabilitation was once understood as the characteristic change in behavior but is now understood as the impact the prisoner has on society after being released. This definition consequently does not provide the offenders with the opportunity to transform their character. It also challenges the Eighth Amendment concerning the human dignity of the