Capital Punishment: When is it Acceptable?

Paper Summary:

This paper presents a brief overview of the history of the death penalty and then assesses it in context of the ethical, utilitarian, and deontological considerations.

From the Paper:

"Capital punishment was a part of human society and dates back to very ancient times. In the olden days retributive measures were severe even for trivial crimes. The foremost account that we have of death penalty is that of the 'Code of King Hammaurabi' which was written during eighteenth century (1792-1750) BC. Under his laws death penalty was ordered for different crimes (around 25) and the most common form of execution was to tie up the convicted and throw them into water and drowning them to death. [Washington State University] The Roman 'law of twelve tablets' written during fifth century B.C is another example of an established legal coding of death penalty during that time. Then in the seventh century we have the Athenian draconian laws (written by Dracon in 621 BC), which included horrific forms of death penalty for all crimes.[ DPIC] Under the Draconian code all the crimes irrespective of their severity were awarded with the ultimate punishment of death. So even minor offenses like theft received the same treatment as serious and barbarous crimes like murder. The most glaring example of capital punishments being executed was the crucification of more than 6000 war prisoners by Crassus (a Roman politician, 1st century BC) after the roman victory over the Spartacus rebellion. Death penalty by crucification continued in Roman Empire until 3rd century ADE when emperor Constantine finally abolished it 325 AD."

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