Excerpt from Life Imprisonment Vs the Death Penalty: To the Honorable Members of the Senate and Lower House of the Fifty-Eight General Assembly and to the Chairman and Members of the Judiciary Committees Thereof
In the early stages of society the man committing homicide was killed by the "Avenger of Blood" on behalf of the family of the man killed, and not as representing the authority of the State. That was the custom for centuries, till the mischief of this practice was mitigated by the establishment of cities of refuge, and in pagan and Christian times of the recognizing of the sanctuary of the temple and the churches. In the laws of Khamurobi. King of Babylon (2285-2241 B. C.) the death penalty was imposed for many offenses; the modes of execution specially mentioned are, drowning, burning and impalement.
See Capital Punishment. Vol. 5, Enc. Britanica.
Draco, the first compiler of the Penal Code of Greece, made death the penalty for all offenses. When asked why he did so. replied: "The least offenses deserve death, and I can impose no worse for the higher crimes."
Under the Mosaic Code the law of vengeance was personified in the then prevailing doctrine of "Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth," in many instances that rule being carried out literally. In the dark ages of the United Kingdom, under the rule of the Saxon and Danish Kings, the modes of capital punishment most common were: "Hanging, beheading, drowning, burning, stoning, and precipitation from rocks." William the Conquerer would not permit the execution of the death sentence by hanging but by mutilation. (5 Vol. Enc. Britanica.)
Death was the penalty for the most trivial offenses; for example, the cutting of a tree or poaching deer. In 1800 there were over 200 capital crimes in Great Britain and 180 in 1819. Men were hung and quartered for offenses which now would be regarded as misdemeanors, while the learned clergy and statesmen looked on with approval and applause.
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