Early Death Penalty Law The first recognised death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which classified the death penalty for 25 different misconducts. The death penalty was also included in the Fourteenth Century B.C.'s Hittite Code; and in the Seventh Century B.C.'s Draconian Code of Athens, which made execution the only punishment as a consequence for a crime, in the Fifth Century B.C.'s Roman law of the Twelve Tablets. There were different methods for the death sentence some of which more brutal than others, such as drowning, being beaten and whipped to death, crucifixion (which was when you were nailed and hung onto a wooden platform and left for days until you died of hunger and exhaustion, being burnt alive and impalement In the Tenth Century A.D., hanging became the typical and more traditional method of killing in Britain. In the Eleventh century, William the Conqueror banned the idea of hanging as a way of execution for a crime excluding in periods of war. However this movement didn’t last very long as during the Sixteenth century, the period which was under the influence and reign of Henry the Eighth, approximately 72,000 people were known to have been executed. And during the 16th century the most used ways of execution was being bunt at the stake, beheading and boiling. Executions were not used for all crimes only for corruptions such as not being truthful about a crme you have committed, perjury, marrying a Jew and treason. Throughout the following centuries the crime rate increased and by the 1700s over 222 offenses were punishable by the death penalty in Britain. Some such as theft, robbing a rabbit warren and cutting down trees….. Because of the brutality of the death punishment, several juries decided not to convict offenders if the felony wasn’t really bad or serious, this resulted in to reforms of Britain's death penalty. From the years 1823 to 1837, the death penalty was abolished for over 100 of the 222 crimes punishable by execution.
Global Figures and Statistics
In 2015, there have been just over 1634 people who have been executed in about 25 countries. This highlights a stark increase on the number of executions that were recorded by more than 50% the previous year (2014). Majority of the capital punishments occur in China, Iran,Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the USA.
The most executions have taken place in China- The real reason of why China uses the death penalty is unknown and is classified as a state secret; therefore the 1,634 excludes the thousands of executions that are known to have been carried out in China.
Not including China, up to 90% of the executions were carried out in just three countries- Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran.
140 countries, more that 2/3, all over the world are abolitionist in law or practice Last Year (2015) Fiji,Madagascar, The Republic of Congo and Suriname elimanated the death penalty as a punishment for crimes. Now altogether, 102 countries have abolished the penalty.
There were over 34 pardons of death sentences in 2015. There were up to 70 people who were found innocent and exonerated within 6 countries.There were 41 in Nigeria, 1 in China,Taiwan and Eygpt,6 in the United States and around 20 in Pakistan.