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Capital Punishment, legal infliction of death as a penalty for violating criminal law. Throughout history people have been put to death for various forms of wrongdoing. Methods of execution have included such practices as crucifixion, stoning, drowning, burning at the stake, impaling, and beheading. Today capital punishment is typically accomplished by lethal gas or injection, electrocution, hanging, or shooting. Electric Chair Of the 38 U. S.
states that currently allow capital punishment, 11 states still use the electric chair. One of those states is Georgia, where this electric chair sits in the Diagnostic and Classification Center in Atlanta. HO/Ga. Dept. of Corrections/REUTERS The death penalty is the most controversial penal practice in the modern world. Other harsh, physical forms of criminal punishment referred to as corporal punishment have generally been eliminated in modern times as uncivilized and unnecessary.
In the majority of countries, contemporary methods of punishment such as imprisonment or finest longer involve the infliction of physical pain (see Corporal Punishment). Although imprisonment and fines are universally recognized as necessary to the control of crime, the nations of the world are split on the issue of capital punishment. About 80 nations have abolished the death penalty and an almost equal number of nations (most of which are developing countries) retain it. About 80 nations have abolished the death penalty and an almost equal number... retain it.
The trend in most industrialized nations has been to first stop executing prisoners and then to substitute long terms of imprisonment for death as the most severe of all criminal penalties. The United States is an important exception to this trend. The federal government and a majority of U. S. states provide for the death penalty, and from 50 to 75 executions occur each year throughout the United States.
II THE DEATH PENALTY DEBATE The practice of capital punishment is as old as government itself. For most of history, it has not been considered controversial. Since ancient times most governments have punished a wide variety of crimes by death and have conducted executions as a routine part of the administration of criminal law. However, in the mid- 18 th century, social commentators in Europe began to emphasize the worth of the individual and to criticize government practices they considered unjust, including capital punishment. The controversy and debate over whether governments should utilize the death penalty continue today. The first significant movement to abolish the death penalty began during the era known as the Age of Enlightenment.
In 1764 Italian jurist and philosopher Cesare Beccaria published
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Research essay sample on Abolished The Death Penalty Corporal Punishment
