DEATH PENALTY

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a government-

sanctioned practice whereby a person is killed by the state as a
punishment for a crime. The sentence that someone be punished in such a
manner is referred to as a death sentence, whereas the act of carrying out
the sentence is known as an execution. Crimes that are punishable by
death are known as capital crimes, capital offences or capital felonies,
and they commonly include serious offences such as murder, mass
murder, aggravated cases of rape, child rape, child sexual
abuse, terrorism, treason, espionage, offences against the State, such as
attempting to overthrow government, piracy, aircraft hijacking, drug
trafficking and drug dealing, war crimes, crimes against
humanity and genocide, and in some cases, the most serious acts
of recidivism, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping, but may include a wide
range of offences depending on a country. Etymologically, the
term capital (lit. "of the head", derived via the Latin capitalis from caput,
"head") in this context alluded to execution by beheading.[1]
Fifty-six countries retain capital punishment, 106 countries have completely
abolished it de jure for all crimes, eight have abolished it for ordinary crimes
(while maintaining it for special circumstances such as war crimes), and 28
are abolitionist in practice.[2]
Capital punishment is a matter of active controversy in several countries
and states, and positions can vary within a single political ideology or
cultural region. In the European Union, Article 2 of the Charter of
Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital
punishment.[3] The Council of Europe, which has 47 member states, has
sought to abolish the use of the death penalty by its members absolutely,
through Protocol 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, this only affects those member states which have signed and
ratified it, and they do not include Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan.
The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, in 2007, 2008, 2010,
2012 and 2014,[4] non-binding resolutions calling for a global moratorium on
executions, with a view to eventual abolition.[5] Although most nations have
abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the world's population live in
countries where the death penalty is retained, such as China, India,
the United
States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Iran, among all mostly Islamic countries, as is maintained
in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Sri Lanka.[6][7][8][9][10] China is believed to
execute more people than all other countries combined.[11]

The use of formal execution extends to the beginning of recorded history.

Most historical records and various primitive tribal practices indicate that
the death penalty was a part of their justice system. Communal punishment
for wrongdoing generally included blood money compensation by the
wrongdoer, corporal punishment, shunning, banishment and execution.
Usually, compensation and shunning were enough as a form of
justice.[14]The response to crimes committed by neighbouring tribes, clans
or communities included a formal apology, compensation, blood feuds,
and tribal warfare.
A blood feud or vendetta occurs when arbitration between families or tribes
fails or an arbitration system is non-existent. This form of justice was
common before the emergence of an arbitration system based on state or
organized religion. It may result from crime, land disputes or a code of
honour. "Acts of retaliation underscore the ability of the social collective to
defend itself and demonstrate to enemies (as well as potential allies) that
injury to property, rights, or the person will not go unpunished."[15]
In most countries that practise capital punishment, it is now reserved
for murder, terrorism, war crimes, espionage, treason, or as part of military
justice. In some countries sexual crimes, such
as rape, fornication, adultery, incest, sodomy, and bestiality carry the death
penalty, as do religious crimes such as Hudud, Zina, and Qisas crimes,
such as apostasy(formal renunciation of the state
religion), blasphemy, moharebeh, hirabah, Fasad, Mofsed-e-
filarz and witchcraft. In many countries that use the death penalty, drug
trafficking and often drug possession is also a capital offence. In
China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption and financial
crimes are punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the
world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offences such
as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny.[16]
Compensation was based on the principle of substitution which might
include material (for example, cattle, slaves, land) compensation, exchange
of brides or grooms, or payment of the blood debt. Settlement rules could
allow for animal blood to replace human blood, or transfers of property
or blood money or in some case an offer of a person for execution. The
 person offered for execution did not have to be an original perpetrator of
the crime because the social system was based on tribes and clans, not
individuals. Blood feuds could be regulated at meetings, such as
the Norsemen things.[17] Systems deriving from blood feuds may survive
alongside more advanced legal systems or be given recognition by courts
(for examp

Tang dynasty
Although many are executed in the People's Republic of China each year
in the present day, there was a time in the Tang dynasty (618–907) when
the death penalty was abolished.[21] This was in the year 747, enacted
by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 712–756). When abolishing the death
penalty Xuanzong ordered his officials to refer to the nearest regulation by
analogy when sentencing those found guilty of crimes for which the
prescribed punishment was execution. Thus depending on the severity of
the crime a punishment of severe scourging with the thick rod or of exile to
the remote Lingnan region might take the place of capital punishment.
However, the death penalty was restored only 12 years later in 759 in
response to the An Lushan Rebellion.[22] At this time in the Tang dynasty
only the emperor had the authority to sentence criminals to execution.
Under Xuanzong capital punishment was relatively infrequent, with only 24
executions in the year 730 and 58 executions in the year 736.[21]

In medieval and early modern Europe, before the development of

modern prison systems, the death penalty was also used as a generalized
form of punishment. During the reign of Henry VIII of England, as many as
72,000 people are estimated to have been executed.[24]
In early modern Europe, a massive moral panic regarding witchcraft swept
across Europe and later the European colonies in North America. During
this period, there were widespread claims that
malevolent Satanic witches were operating as an organized threat
to Christendom. As a result, tens of thousands of women were prosecuted
for witchcraft and executed through the witch trials of the early modern
period (between the 15th and 18th centuries).
The death penalty also targeted sexual offences such as sodomy. In
England, the Buggery Act 1533 stipulated hanging as punishment for
"buggery". James Pratt and John Smith were the last two Englishmen to be
executed for sodomy in 1835.[25]
Despite the wide use of the death penalty, calls for reform were not
unknown. The 12th century Jewish legal scholar, Moses Maimonides,
wrote, "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons
than to put a single innocent man to death." He argued that executing an
accused criminal on anything less than absolute certainty would lead to a
slippery slope of decreasing burdens of proof, until we would be convicting
merely "according to the judge's caprice". Maimonides's concern was
maintaining popular respect for law, and he saw errors of commission as
much more threatening than errors of omission.[26]
The Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad, such as Al-Mu'tadid, were often cruel in
their punishments.[27][page needed]