When was capital punishment started

There is, however, a fair way to go, and Americans have the British to blame most for introducing the death penalty to their country. There has been a long history of capital punishment in Britain. As early ago as BC the condemned were killed by being dropped into a quagmire, though by the 10th century hanging from the gallows was the preferred method of execution.

By the 18th century more than crimes were punishable by death in Britain, such as stealing 40 shillings from a house, or five shillings from a shop, or even cutting down a tree.

So, when was the death penalty abolished in Britain? Well, capital punishment for murder was abolished in , a year after the last executions took place, and in Northern Ireland. And although the death penalty was unused henceforth it remained a legally defined punishment for treason until it was totally abolished in the UK in America is some way behind, though gathering speed.

When British settlers made landfall in the Americas, in the age of discovery, they brought with them the practice of capital punishment. The first recorded execution in the colonies of the new world occurred in , when Captain George Kendall was put to death in Virginia for allegedly spying for the Spanish. April - U. January - Illinois Governor George Ryan declares a Moratorium on executions and appoints a blue-ribbon Commission on Capital Punishment to study the issue.

January - Gov. George Ryan grants clemency to all of the remaining death row inmates in Illinois because of the flawed process that led to these sentences. March - In Roper V. Simmons, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty for those who had committed their crimes under 18 years of age was cruel and unusual punishment. December - The New Jersey General Assembly votes to become the first state to legislatively abolish capital punishment since it was re-instated in February - The Nebraska Supreme Court rules electrocution, the sole execution method in the state, to be cruel and unusual punishment, effectively freezing all executions in the state.

June - Kennedy v. Early forms of capital punishment were designed to be slow, painful, and torturous. In some ancient cultures, law breakers were put to death by stoning, crucifixion, being burned at the stake, and even slowly being crushed by elephants. Later societies found these methods to be cruel and unusual forms of punishment, and sought out more humane practices.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, legal bodies found faster and less painful approaches to the death penalty, including hanging and beheading with the guillotine. While these were still violent and bloody practices that were often large public spectacles, the end result was usually instantaneous and therefore seen as more compassionate.

Death sentences were carried out by such means as crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. In the Tenth Century A. In the following century, William the Conqueror would not allow persons to be hanged or otherwise executed for any crime, except in times of war. This trend would not last, for in the Sixteenth Century, under the reign of Henry VIII, as many as 72, people are estimated to have been executed.

Some common methods of execution at that time were boiling, burning at the stake, hanging, beheading, and drawing and quartering.