Death Penalty: A Very Brief History Of Capital Punishment

The first established death penalty case dates all the way back to eighteenth century B.C. The practice of killing people who committed crimes has always been something that was around and even more so in the old days. The death penalty, also known as capital punishment is the government sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death by the state as punishment for a crime. By definition this is what the death penalty is but in layman terms it’s killing someone for a crime that the state feels is not punishable with just prison or jail. Not all states have the death penalty, there are thirty-one states with the death penalty and nineteen states without the death penalty. Britain was one of the main influences when it comes to the death penalty, when they came the europeans brought their practices such as capital punishment with them. The first known execution was recorded in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Captain George Kendall was executed for being a spy in spain, this commenced the executions in the Americas. There have always been people …show more content…
However, in the early 1960s, it was stated that the death penalty was a "cruel and unusual" punishment, and unconstitutional under the eighth amendment. In some cases the death penalty can be seen as the easiest way to seek justice but there’s a saying “two wrongs don’t make a right” this is true killing someone who has killed eighty people does not justify the death of eighty other people. In the end there will be eighty-one people dead and that still does not bring justice. The judicial system works on a specific system that the type of crime committed determines the punishment that is received. Some people would agree that there is more justice and more punishment bought onto a person who has to sit in a jail or prison cell and be alone with the thoughts of the crimes they have committed than just executing