History of the Death Penalty

(A) - Early Forms of the Death Penalty Ancient China - First established death penalty laws 18th century BCE - Code of king Hammurabi of Babylon - Earliest form of unified system of justice. Death penalty for 25 crimes, including an “eye for an Eye” 16th century BCE - Egypt - first historically recorded death sentence (a man was accused of using magic) 14th century BCE - Hittite code - also prescribed the death penalty 621 BCE - Draconian code of Athens - ‘the death penalty applied for a particularly wide range of crimes”. 5th century BCE - Roman law of the twelve tables includes the death penalty 3rd century BCE - Jews recorded as using four death penalty methods including: Stoning, Hanging, Beheading, and burning. 30 BCE - Sanhedrin Jewish Courts effectively abolish capital punishment, saying that it is only fitting in finality for g-d 29 AD - crucifixion of jesus - most infamous execution in history 330 AD - Emperor Constantine I (Constantine the Great) abolishes crucifixion and other cruel death penalties in the Roman Empire 438 AD - Code of Theodosius - made more then 80 crimes punishable by death 747 AD - Emperor Taizong of Tang (China) - abolished the death penalty. Up till then there were nearly 40 executions a year. 818 AD - Emperor Saga of Japan abolishes the death penalty Common methods for the early death penalties included: stoning, hanging, beheading, crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, impalement, boiling, and quartering.

(B) - Middle ages and the renaissance times (Plus) Around 900 AD - Ling Chi (Slow Slicing), or death by a thousand cuts, was implemented in china. It’s a method in which they would make small paper cut like incisions, until the patient would die due to a loss of blood. 10th century - Hanging becomes the most common method of killing in Britain. 11th century - William the conqueror - Banned hanging and