Capital Punishment Of The United States - 1588 Words

Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the utmost form of punishment in the United States. It is the method of punishment by execution legally given to a criminal convicted of a crime. Capital punishment originated from many early societies, it is only imposed on people who have committed very serious crimes, and only five different execution types are currently used in the United States. The death penalty has been around for a while. The first death penalty laws date back to the eighteenth century with the Code of Hammurabi. In the Code of Hammurabi, there were up to twenty five different crimes people could have been executed for. The Hittite Code, The Roman Law, and the Draconian Code of Athens all included†¦show more content†¦The United States got its use of the death penalty from Britain. When the Europeans came to the United States, they brought the practice of capital punishment with them. In 1602, Captain George Kendall was the first person ex ecuted in the United States in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia because he was caught spying for Spain. In 1612, the governor of Virginia passed the Moral and Martial laws, which stated that the death penalty could be given to anyone found stealing grapes, killing chickens, or trading goods with Indians. The different death penalty laws varied from colony to colony. During ancient times, the death penalty could have been given to anyone for any crime. Now the death penalty is mostly imposed on anyone who has committed murder. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in America and England, there were numerous crimes that colonist would be put to death for that they would just be incarcerated for today. These crimes included theft, manslaughter, and robbery. In the United States only two people were on death row for crimes other than murder. In 1974, Enrlich Anthony Coker escaped from prison and broke in the house of Allen and Elnita Carter. He raped Elnita and then stole the c ouple’s car and forced her to come along. He threatened to kill Elnita but never went through with it. Cooker was later caught by police and put on trial. He was sentenced to