Code of King Hammaurabi

1
Code of King Hammaurabi

• -First death penalty laws
• -Ham was the 6th king of the Amorite Dynasty in
  old Babylon
• -Believed to have been given to him by Shamash
  (god of Justice)

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Code of King Hammaurabi

• -eye for eye
• -many modern day laws were derived from it
• -280 laws
• -over 150 were punishable by death
• 
  

3
Dracion Code

• - Was established in the 7th century Athenian
  named Draco
• -Draco-appointed to council 621 BC- Pressured by
  Hoplites to establish code
• -Code-known for severity-caused destabilization
  of political situation

4
Roman law of 12 tablets

• Were written in response to plebeian protest
• Judges discriminated against them because laws
  were known orally
• Used following methods for execution
• Crucifixion, drowning, beating, burning alive
• Also killed for sport

5
Britain

• Hanging was the most widely used form
• King Henry lacked sympathy
• More than 72000 people were executed under his
  rule
• Made 222 crimes punishable
• His methods burning, boiling, hanging,
  beheading, Drawing and quartering, stoning and
  stretching (his favorite was boiling )

6
Britain

• 2 classes of society
• Illiterate judged harshly by local civil council
• Literate were judged by their peers-they were
  usually given a slap on the wrist for their
  crimes
• Used psalm 51 to find out if they were literate
  or not

7
France

• Had more creative ways of execution
• Joseph Guillotine invented guillotine In 1789-he
  was later executed with own contraption
• Also used a method of throwing their criminals on
  spikes
• The French went on a killing spree

8
The American Colonies

• First to be executed was Capt. George Kendall-he
  was a spy for Spain
• 1611-1614 Devine law, Moral Law, Martial Law
• Laws made retaliation for small crimes
• 1622 Daniel Frank was executed for theft
• 1636-1647 Capital laws of New England-made death
  penalty punishable for certain major offenses

9
The American Colonies

• 1632 Jane Champion was first women executed-was
  executed for killing her kids
• Hanged in James City Virginia

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18th Century

• Abolitionist movement began
• People believed execution was to harsh for such
  little crimes
• Complaints and riots broke out
• The philosopher Cesar Beccarias 1767 essay On
  Crimes and Punishment made huge impact on
  abolitionist
• First penitentiaries

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19th Century

• Many capital crimes were banished all over the
  world
• 1834 Pennsylvania became first state to move
  executions out of the public and into
  penitentiaries-others followed
• North Carolina still required death penalty for
  most crimes
• 1837 Tennessee adopted the discretionary death
  penalty

12
19th Century

• 1846 Michigan became the first to abolish death
  penalty for all crimes except treason-hasnt
  hanged anyone since 1830
• 1852 Rhode Island abolished death penalty-was led
  by univeralists, Unitarians, and mostly Quakers
• 1853 Wisconsin abolished Death penalty after
  problems in humane public hanging

13
19th Century

• 1888 the first electric chair was
  introduced-thinking it was more humane
• 1890 William Kemmler who was convicted of murder
  was first to be executed by new chair

14
Sacco and Vanzetti

• Convicted of robbery and murder on April 15,1920
• South Braintree, Mass.
• Sentenced to electric chair
• Put to death in 1927

15
Early 20th Century

• 1907 -1917 Progression Movement -six states
  abolished death penalty-3 others highly regulated
  it-movement was short-lived
• 1920 five of the six reenacted the D.P. Laws
• Italian imigants Sacco and Vanzetti were accused
  of robbery and executed even though they had an
  alibi
• 1940 abolitionist s lost most of their support

16
Early 20th Century

• Furman v. Georgia
• Three cases presented to supreme court
• Supreme court abolished death penalty for all of
  US
• Ruled it cruel due to race / age / socio-economic
  status
• end