Editing Capital punishment (section)

==History==
[[File:Auguste Vaillant execution.jpg|thumb|upright|Anarchist [[Auguste Vaillant]] about to be guillotined in France in 1894]]
Execution of criminals and [[dissident]]s has been used by nearly all societies since the [[beginning of civilizations|beginning of civilisations]] on Earth.<ref>{{cite web |title= Criminal Justice: Capital Punishment Focus |url= https://www.criminaljusticedegreeschools.com/criminal-justice-resources/criminal-justice-capital-punishment-focus/ |publisher= criminaljusticedegreeschools.com |access-date= 27 August 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170827171830/https://www.criminaljusticedegreeschools.com/criminal-justice-resources/criminal-justice-capital-punishment-focus/ |archive-date= 27 August 2017}}</ref> Until the nineteenth century, without developed prison systems, there was frequently no workable alternative to ensure [[deterrence (penology)|deterrence]] and incapacitation of criminals.<ref>{{cite web |title= Furman v. Georgia – Mr. Justice Brennan, concurring |url= https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/408/238#writing-USSC_CR_0408_0238_ZC1 |publisher= law.cornell.edu |quote= When this country was founded, memories of the Stuart horrors were fresh and severe corporal punishments were common. Death was not then a unique punishment. The practice of punishing criminals by death, moreover, was widespread and by and large acceptable to society. Indeed, without developed prison systems, there was frequently no workable alternative. Since that time, successive restrictions, imposed against the background of a continuing moral controversy, have drastically curtailed the use of this punishment. |access-date= 19 July 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170718190721/https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/408/238#writing-USSC_CR_0408_0238_ZC1 |archive-date= 18 July 2017}}</ref> In [[pre-modern]] times the executions themselves often involved torture with painful methods, such as the [[breaking wheel]], [[keelhauling]], [[Death by sawing|sawing]], [[Hanged, drawn and quartered|hanging, drawing and quartering]], [[Death by burning|burning at the stake]], [[crucifixion]], [[flaying]], [[Lingchi|slow slicing]], [[boiling alive]], [[impalement]], [[mazzatello]], [[blowing from a gun]], [[schwedentrunk]], and [[scaphism]]. Other methods which appear only in legend include the [[blood eagle]] and [[brazen bull]].{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

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 punishments for wrongdoing generally included [[Blood money (restitution)|blood money]] compensation by the wrongdoer, corporal punishment, [[shunning]], banishment and execution. In tribal societies, compensation and shunning were often considered enough as a form of justice.<ref>So common was the practice of compensation that the word ''murder'' is derived from the French word ''mordre'' (bite) a reference to the heavy compensation one must pay for causing an unjust death. The "bite" one had to pay was used as a term for the crime itself: "Mordre wol out; that se we day by day." – [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] (1340–1400), [[The Canterbury Tales]], ''The Nun's Priest's Tale'', l. 4242 (1387–1400), repr. In ''The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer'', ed. Alfred W. Pollard, et al. (1898).</ref> The response to crimes committed by neighbouring tribes, clans or communities included a formal apology, compensation, blood feuds, and [[tribal warfare]].

A [[Feud|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."<ref>Translated from Waldmann, ''op.cit.'', p. 147.</ref>

In most countries that practice capital punishment, it is now reserved for murder, terrorism, war crimes, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries, [[sexual crime]]s, 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 from Islam|apostasy]] (formal renunciation of the [[state religion]]), [[Islam and blasphemy|blasphemy]], [[moharebeh]], [[hirabah]], [[Fasad]], [[Mofsed-e-filarz]] and witchcraft. In many [[Use of capital punishment by nation|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 crime]]s 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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shotatdawn.org.uk/ |title=Shot at Dawn, campaign for pardons for British and Commonwealth soldiers executed in World War I |access-date=20 July 2006 |publisher=Shot at Dawn Pardons Campaign |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060703143147/http://www.shotatdawn.org.uk/ |archive-date=3 July 2006 }}</ref>

===Ancient history===
[[File:Jean-Léon Gérôme - The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer - Walters 37113.jpg|thumb|left|''The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer'', by [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]] (1883). [[Roman Empire|Roman]] [[Circus Maximus]].]]
Elaborations of tribal arbitration of [[feud]]s included peace settlements often done in a religious context and compensation system. 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 (term)|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]] ''[[Thing (assembly)|things]]''.<ref>Lindow, ''op.cit.'' (primarily discusses Icelandic ''things'').</ref> Systems deriving from blood feuds may survive alongside more advanced legal systems or be given recognition by courts (for example, [[trial by combat]] or blood money). One of the more modern refinements of the blood feud is the [[duel]].

[[File:Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_Bibel_in_Bildern_1860_187.png|thumb|[[Beheading of John the Baptist]], woodcut by [[Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld]], 1860]]
In certain parts of the world, nations in the form of ancient republics, monarchies or tribal oligarchies emerged. These nations were often united by common linguistic, religious or family ties. Moreover, expansion of these nations often occurred by conquest of neighbouring tribes or nations. Consequently, various classes of royalty, nobility, various commoners and slaves emerged. Accordingly, the systems of tribal arbitration were submerged into a more unified system of justice which formalized the relation between the different "social classes" rather than "tribes". The earliest and most famous example is [[Code of Hammurabi]] which set the different punishment and compensation, according to the different class or group of victims and perpetrators. [[Capital punishment in the Bible|The Torah/Old Testament]] lays down the death penalty for murder,<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|9:6|HE}}, "Whosoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed."</ref> kidnapping, practicing magic, violation of the [[Shabbat|Sabbath]], blasphemy, and a wide range of sexual crimes, although evidence{{Specify|date=June 2023}} suggests that actual executions were exceedingly rare, if they occurred at all.<ref>{{Cite book|first=William|last=Schabas|year=2002|title=The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-81491-1}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2023}}

A [[Peshotanu (punishment)|Peshotanu]] was a condemned person in Ancient Persia. 

A further example comes from [[Ancient Greece]], where the [[Athenian]] legal system replacing [[customary law|customary]] [[oral law]] was first written down by [[Draco (lawgiver)|Draco]] in about 621 BC: the death penalty was applied for a particularly wide range of crimes, though [[Solon]] later repealed Draco's code and published new laws, retaining capital punishment only for intentional homicide, and only with victim's family permission.<ref>{{cite web|author=Robert|url=http://history-world.org/draco_and_solon_laws.htm|title=Greece, A History of Ancient Greece, Draco and Solon Laws|publisher=History-world.org|access-date=23 August 2010|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101021023919/http://history-world.org/draco_and_solon_laws.htm|archive-date=21 October 2010}}</ref> The word [[wikt:draconian|draconian]] derives from Draco's laws. The [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] also used the death penalty for a wide range of offences.<ref name=britannica>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/93902/capital-punishment|title=capital punishment (law) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Britannica.com|access-date=12 December 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121122091559/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/93902/capital-punishment|archive-date=22 November 2012}}</ref>

===Ancient Greece===
[[File:David - The Death of Socrates.jpg|thumb|[[The Death of Socrates]] (1787), in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York City]]
[[Protagoras]] (whose thought is reported by [[Plato]]) criticised the principle of revenge, because once the damage is done it cannot be cancelled by any action. So, if the death penalty is to be imposed by society, it is only to protect the latter against the criminal or for a dissuasive purpose.<ref>{{harvnb|Jean-Marie Carbasse|2002|p=15|id=Carbasse2002}}</ref> "The only right that Protagoras knows is therefore human right, which, established and sanctioned by a sovereign collectivity, identifies itself with positive or the law in force of the city. In fact, it finds its guarantee in the death penalty which threatens all those who do not respect it."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N9Y2aYV5RTkC&q=Protagoras+%22peine+de+mort%22&pg=PA58|title = Platonisme politique et théorie du droit naturel: Le platonisme politique dans l'antiquité|isbn = 9789068317688|last1 = Neschke|first1 = Ada Babette|last2 = Follon|first2 = Jacques|year = 1995| publisher=Peeters Publishers }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N9Y2aYV5RTkC| title = Platonisme politique et théorie du droit naturel: Le platonisme politique dans l'antiquité| isbn = 9789068317688| last1 = Neschke| first1 = Ada Babette| last2 = Follon| first2 = Jacques| year = 1995| publisher = Peeters Publishers}}</ref>

Plato saw the death penalty as a means of purification, because crimes are a "defilement". Thus, in the [[Laws (dialogue)|Laws]], he considered necessary the execution of the animal or the destruction of the object which caused the death of a man by accident. For the murderers, he considered that the act of homicide is not natural and is not fully consented by the criminal. Homicide is thus a disease of the [[soul]], which must be reeducated as much as possible, and, as a last resort, sentence to death if no rehabilitation is possible.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.puf.com/content/La_peine_de_mort_0| title = La peine de mort| access-date = 26 October 2020| archive-date = 29 October 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201029153208/https://www.puf.com/content/La_peine_de_mort_0| url-status = dead}}</ref>

According to [[Aristotle]], for whom free will is proper to man, a person is responsible for their actions. If there was a crime, a judge must define the penalty allowing the crime to be annulled by compensating it. This is how pecuniary compensation appeared for criminals the least recalcitrant and whose rehabilitation is deemed possible. However, for others, he argued, the death penalty is necessary.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://ihd.edu.umontpellier.fr/jean-marie-carbasse/| title = Jean-Marie Carbasse| access-date = 27 October 2020| archive-date = 9 July 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230709192102/https://ihd.edu.umontpellier.fr/jean-marie-carbasse/| url-status = dead}}</ref>

This philosophy aims on the one hand to protect society and on the other hand to compensate to cancel the consequences of the crime committed. It inspired Western criminal law until the 17th century, a time when the first reflections on the abolition of the death penalty appeared.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://deathpenalty.procon.org/historical-timeline/| title = 1700 BC – 1799| date = 5 February 2025}}</ref>

===Ancient Rome===
The [[Twelve Tables]], the body of laws handed down from archaic Rome, prescribe the death penalty for a variety of crimes including libel, arson and theft.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Melusky |first1=Joseph Anthony |title=Capital punishment |last2=Pesto |first2=Keith A. |date=2011 |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=978-1-4408-0057-3 |series=Historical guides to controversial issues in America |location=Santa Barbara, Calif |page=8}}</ref> During the [[Late Republic]], there was consensus among the public and legislators to reduce the incidence of capital punishment. This opinion led to [[voluntary exile]] being prescribed in place of the death penalty, whereby a convict could either choose to leave in exile or face execution.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bauman |first=Richard A. |title=Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2002 |isbn=9781134823949 |location=New York |pages=6–7 |language=en}}</ref>

A historic debate, followed by a vote, took place in the [[Roman Senate]] to decide the fate of [[Catiline]]'s allies when he attempted to seize power in December, 63 BC. Cicero, then [[Roman consul]], argued in support of the killing of conspirators without judgment by decision of the Senate ([[Senatus consultum ultimum]]) and was supported by the majority of senators; among the minority voices opposed to the execution, the most notable was [[Julius Caesar]].<ref>{{cite journal| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/3306244| title = Freedom and Slavery in Roman Law| jstor = 3306244| last1 = Shumway| first1 = Edgar S.| journal = The American Law Register | year = 1901| volume = 49| issue = 11| pages = 636–653| doi = 10.2307/3306244|issn = 1558-3562}}</ref> The custom was different for [[peregrini|foreigners]] who did not hold rights as [[Roman citizenship|Roman citizen]]s, and especially for slaves, who were transferrable property.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

[[Crucifixion]] was a form of punishment first employed by the Romans against [[Slavery in ancient Rome#Rebellions|slaves who rebelled]], and throughout the Republican era was [[Slavery in ancient Rome#Crucifixion|reserved for slaves]], [[latrocinium|bandits]], and [[Law of majestas|traitors]]. Intended to be a punishment, a humiliation, and a deterrent, the condemned could take up to a few days to die. Corpses of the crucified were typically left on the crosses to decompose and to be eaten by animals.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web|url=http://www.mercaba.org/FICHAS/upsa/crucifixion.htm|title=Crucifixion in Antiquity: The Evidence|last=Zias|first=Joseph|date=1998|website=www.mercaba.org|access-date=25 September 2023}}</ref>

===China===
There was a time in the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907) when the death penalty was abolished.<ref name="benn 8">{{Cite book |last=Benn |first=Charles D. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/845680499 |title=China's golden age everyday life in the Tang dynasty |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-517665-0 |oclc=845680499}}</ref> 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]].<ref>Benn, pp. 209–210</ref> 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.<ref name="benn 8"/>

The two most common forms of execution in the Tang dynasty were strangulation and decapitation, which were the prescribed methods of execution for 144 and 89 offences respectively. Strangulation was the prescribed sentence for lodging an accusation against one's parents or grandparents with a magistrate, scheming to kidnap a person and sell them into slavery and opening a coffin while desecrating a tomb. Decapitation was the method of execution prescribed for more serious crimes such as treason and sedition. Despite the great discomfort involved, most of the Tang Chinese preferred strangulation to decapitation, as a result of the traditional Tang Chinese belief that the body is a gift from the parents and that it is, therefore, disrespectful to one's ancestors to die without returning one's body to the grave intact.

Some further forms of capital punishment were practiced in the Tang dynasty, of which the first two that follow at least were extralegal.{{Clarify|if they were extra-legal, they fail the definition of CapPun|date=July 2016}} The first of these was scourging to death with the thick rod{{Clarify|what is scourging with a thick rod? Anal?|date=July 2016}} which was common throughout the Tang dynasty especially in cases of gross corruption. The second was truncation, in which the convicted person was cut in two at the waist with a fodder knife and then left to bleed to death.<ref name=Benn210>Benn, p. 210</ref> A further form of execution called Ling Chi ([[slow slicing]]), or death by/of a thousand cuts, was used from the close of the Tang dynasty (around 900) to its abolition in 907.

When a minister of the fifth grade or above received a death sentence the emperor might grant him a special dispensation allowing him to commit suicide in lieu of execution. Even when this privilege was not granted, the law required that the condemned minister be provided with food and ale by his keepers and transported to the execution ground in a cart rather than having to walk there.

Nearly all executions under the Tang dynasty took place in public as a warning to the population. The heads of the executed were displayed on poles or spears. When local authorities decapitated a convicted criminal, the head was boxed and sent to the capital as proof of identity and that the execution had taken place.<ref name=Benn210 />

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Lamanie kolem L 001xx.jpg|thumb|left|The [[breaking wheel]] was used during the Middle Ages and was still in use into the 19th century.]]
In [[Medieval Europe|medieval]] and early modern Europe, before the development of modern prison systems, the death penalty was also used as a generalised form of punishment for even minor offences.<ref>{{Citation |last=Ward |first=Richard |title=Introduction: A Global History of Execution and the Criminal Corpse |date=2015 |url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK379343/ |work=A Global History of Execution and the Criminal Corpse |editor-last=Ward |editor-first=Richard |access-date=2023-04-03 |series=Wellcome Trust–Funded Monographs and Book Chapters |place=Basingstoke (UK) |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-44401-1 |pmid=27559562}}</ref>

In early modern Europe, a mass panic regarding witchcraft swept across Europe and later the [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonies in North America]]. During this period, there were widespread claims that malevolent [[Satanism|Satanic]] [[Witchcraft|witches]] were operating as an organised threat to [[Christendom]]. As a result, tens of thousands of women were prosecuted for witchcraft and executed through the [[Witch trials in the early modern period|witch trials of the early modern period]] (between the 15th and 18th centuries).

[[File:Rohrbach-verbrennung-1525.jpg|thumb|The burning of Jakob Rohrbach, a leader of the peasants during the [[German Peasants' War]]]]
The death penalty also targeted sexual offences such as [[sodomy]]. In the early history of Islam (7th–11th centuries), there is a number of "purported (but mutually inconsistent) reports" (''athar'') regarding the punishments of sodomy ordered by some of the [[Caliphate|early caliphs]].<ref name=iranica-law>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Rowson |first=Everett K. |author-link=Everett K. Rowson |title=Homosexuality in Islamic Law |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/homosexuality-ii |volume=XII/4 |pages=441–445 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |date= 2012 |orig-year= 2004 |doi=10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_11037 |doi-access=free |issn=2330-4804 |access-date=13 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517035334/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/homosexuality-ii |archive-date=17 May 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Muhammad Homosexuality">{{cite book |author-last=Wafer |author-first=Jim |year=1997 |chapter=Muhammad and Male Homosexuality |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Zw-AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 |editor1-last=Murray |editor1-first=Stephen O. |editor1-link=Stephen O. Murray |editor2-last=Roscoe |editor2-first=Will |title=[[Islamic Homosexualities|Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] and [[London]] |publisher=[[NYU Press]] |pages=88–96 |doi=10.18574/nyu/9780814761083.003.0006 |isbn=9780814774687 |jstor=j.ctt9qfmm4 |oclc=35526232 |s2cid=141668547}}</ref> [[Abu Bakr]], the first caliph of the [[Rashidun Caliphate]], apparently recommended toppling a wall on the culprit, or else [[Death by burning|burning him alive]],<ref name="Muhammad Homosexuality"/> while [[Ali ibn Abi Talib]] is said to have ordered [[Stoning in Islam|death by stoning]] for one sodomite and had another thrown head-first from the top of the highest building in the town; according to [[Ibn Abbas]], the latter punishment must be followed by stoning.<ref name="Muhammad Homosexuality"/><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=1986 |title=Liwāṭ |editor1-last=Bosworth |editor1-first=C. E. |editor1-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor2-last=van Donzel |editor2-first=E. J. |editor2-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor3-last=Heinrichs |editor3-first=W. P. |editor3-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |editor4-last=Lewis |editor4-first=B. |editor5-last=Pellat |editor5-first=Ch. |editor5-link=Charles Pellat |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam#2nd edition, EI2|Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition]] |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=5 |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_4677 |isbn=978-90-04-16121-4}}</ref> Other medieval Muslim leaders, such as the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid caliphs]] in [[Baghdad]] (most notably [[al-Mu'tadid]]), were often cruel in their punishments.<ref>''The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall.'', [[William Muir]]</ref>{{Page needed|date=December 2017}} In early modern 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.<ref>{{cite book | title=A Gay History of Britain: Love and Sex Between Men Since the Middle Ages | publisher=[[Greenwood World Publishing]] | last1=Cook |first1=Matt | last2=Mills |first2=Robert | last3=Trumback |first3=Randolph | last4=Cocks |first4=Harry | year=2007 |page=109| isbn=978-1846450020}}</ref> In 1636 the laws of [[Puritan]] governed [[Plymouth Colony]] included a sentence of death for sodomy and buggery.<ref>{{cite book |title=Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago before Stonewall |date=2012 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |page=248}}</ref> The [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] followed in 1641. Throughout the 19th century, U.S. states repealed death sentences from their sodomy laws, with South Carolina being the last to do so in 1873.<ref>{{cite book |title=Gay and Lesbian Educators: Personal Freedoms, Public Constraints |date=1997 |publisher=Amethyst |page=153}}</ref>

Historians recognise that during the [[Early Middle Ages]], the Christian populations living in the [[Early Muslim conquests|lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies]] between the 7th and 10th centuries suffered [[religious discrimination]], [[religious persecution]], [[religious violence]], and [[Martyrdom in Christianity|martyrdom]] multiple times at the hands of Arab Muslim officials and rulers.<ref name="Sahner 2020">{{cite book |last=Sahner |first=Christian C. |year=2020 |orig-year=2018 |title=Christian Martyrs under Islam: Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World |chapter=Introduction: Christian Martyrs under Islam |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZqzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]] and [[Woodstock, Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=1–28 |isbn=978-0-691-17910-0 |lccn=2017956010}}</ref><ref name="Runciman 1987">{{cite book |last=Runciman |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Runciman |year=1987 |orig-year=1951 |chapter=The Reign of Antichrist |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uDj9sNezWzEC&pg=PA20 |title=[[A History of the Crusades|A History of the Crusades, Volume 1: The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem]] |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=20–37 |isbn=978-0-521-34770-9}}</ref> As [[People of the Book]], Christians under Muslim rule were subjected to ''[[dhimmi]]'' status (along with [[Jews]], [[Samaritans]], [[Gnostics]], [[Mandeans]], and Zoroastrians), which was inferior to the status of Muslims.<ref name="Runciman 1987" /><ref name="Stillman 1998">{{cite book |last=Stillman |first=Norman A. |author-link=Norman Stillman |year=1998 |title=The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book |chapter=Under the New Order |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFN2ismyhEYC&pg=PA22 |location=[[Philadelphia]] |publisher=[[Jewish Publication Society]] |pages=22–28 |isbn=978-0-8276-0198-7}}</ref> Christians and other religious minorities thus faced [[religious discrimination]] and [[religious persecution]] in that they were banned from [[Proselytism|proselytising]] (for Christians, it was forbidden to [[Evangelism|evangelise or spread Christianity]]) in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslims on pain of death, they were banned from bearing arms, undertaking certain professions, and were obligated to dress differently in order to distinguish themselves from Arabs.<ref name="Stillman 1998" /> Under ''[[sharia]]'', Non-Muslims were obligated to pay ''[[jizya]]'' and ''[[kharaj]]'' taxes,<ref name="Runciman 1987" /><ref name="Stillman 1998" /> together with periodic heavy [[ransom]] levied upon Christian communities by Muslim rulers in order to fund military campaigns, all of which contributed a significant proportion of income to the Islamic states while conversely reducing many Christians to poverty, and these financial and social hardships forced many Christians to convert to Islam.<ref name="Stillman 1998" /> Christians unable to pay these taxes were forced to surrender their children to the Muslim rulers as payment who would [[History of slavery in the Muslim world|sell them as slaves]] to Muslim households where they [[Forced conversion#Islam|were forced to convert to Islam]].<ref name="Stillman 1998" /> Many Christian martyrs [[Capital punishment in Islam|were executed under the Islamic death penalty]] for defending their Christian faith through dramatic acts of resistance such as refusing to convert to Islam, [[Apostasy in Islam|repudiation of the Islamic religion]] and subsequent [[Conversion to Christianity|reconversion to Christianity]], and [[Islam and blasphemy|blasphemy towards Muslim beliefs]].<ref name="Sahner 2020"/>

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 [[Legal burden of proof|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.<ref name="Moses Maimonides 1967">Moses Maimonides, ''The Commandments, Neg. Comm. 290'', at 269–71 (Charles B. Chavel trans., 1967).</ref>

===Enlightenment philosophy===
While during the Middle Ages the expiatory aspect of the death penalty was taken into account, this is no longer the case under the [[Lumières]]. These define the place of man within society no longer according to a divine rule, but as a contract established at birth between the citizen and the society, it is the [[Contractualism|social contract]]. From that moment on, capital punishment should be seen as useful to society through its dissuasive effect, but also as a means of protection of the latter vis-à-vis criminals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kashiwazaki |first=Masanori |date=2021 |title=Improvement as the Foundation of Liberty: Locke on Labour, Equality, and Civic Membership |url=https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/locke/article/view/11110 |journal=Locke Studies |language=en |volume=21 |pages=56–87–56–87 |doi=10.5206/ls.2021.11110 |s2cid=250934172 |issn=2561-925X|doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Modern era===
[[File:Beccaria - Dei delitti e delle pene - 6043967 A.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Wikt:antiporta|''Antiporta'']] of ''Dei delitti e delle pene'' (''On Crimes and Punishments''), 1766 ed.]]
In the last several centuries, with the emergence of modern [[nation state]]s, justice came to be increasingly associated with the concept of [[natural and legal rights]]. The period saw an increase in standing police forces and permanent penitential institutions. [[Rational choice theory (criminology)|Rational choice theory]], a [[utilitarian]] approach to [[criminology]] which justifies punishment as a form of deterrence as opposed to retribution, can be traced back to [[Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria|Cesare Beccaria]], whose influential treatise ''On Crimes and Punishments'' (1764) was the first detailed analysis of capital punishment to demand the abolition of the death penalty.<ref>Marcello Maestro, "A pioneer for the abolition of capital punishment: Cesare Beccaria." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 34.3 (1973): 463–68. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2708966 online]</ref> In England, [[Jeremy Bentham]] (1748–1832), the founder of modern utilitarianism, called for the abolition of the death penalty.<ref name="deathpenalty">{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/1143143|author1=Bedau, Hugo Adam|title=Bentham's Utilitarian Critique of the Death Penalty|journal=The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology|volume=74|issue=3|date=Autumn 1983|pages=1033–65|jstor=1143143|url=http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol74/iss3/12|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831041015/http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol74/iss3/12/|archive-date=31 August 2017}}</ref> Beccaria, and later [[Charles Dickens]] and [[Karl Marx]] noted the incidence of increased violent criminality at the times and places of executions. Official recognition of this phenomenon led to executions being carried out inside prisons, away from public view.

In England in the 18th century, when there was no police force, Parliament drastically increased the number of capital offences to more than 200. These were mainly property offences, for example cutting down a cherry tree in an orchard.<ref name="JonesJohnstone2011">{{cite book|author1=Mark Jones|author2=Peter Johnstone|title=History of Criminal Justice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qhPdaCJWQikC&pg=PA152|date=22 July 2011|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-4377-3491-1|pages=150–}}</ref> In 1820, there were 160, including crimes such as shoplifting, petty theft or stealing cattle.<ref>Durant, Will and Ariel, ''The Story of Civilization, Volume IX: The Age of Voltaire'' New York, 1965, p. 71</ref> The severity of the so-called [[Bloody Code]] was often tempered by juries who refused to convict, or judges, in the case of petty theft, who arbitrarily set the value stolen at below the statutory level for a capital crime.<ref>Durant, p. 72,</ref>

===20th century===
[[File:Mexican execution, 1914.jpg|left|thumb|Mexican execution by [[firing squad]], 1916]]
In [[Nazi Germany]], there were three types of capital punishment; hanging, decapitation, and death by shooting.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gN0QgcW4Td0C&pg=PA289|page= 289|title=The criminal law of Japan: the general part|author=Dando Shigemitsu|year=1999|publisher= F.B. Rothman|isbn= 9780837706535}}</ref> Also, modern military organisations employed capital punishment as a means of maintaining military discipline. In the past, [[cowardice]], absence without leave, [[desertion]], [[insubordination]], shirking under enemy fire and disobeying orders were often crimes punishable by death (see [[Decimation (Roman army)|decimation]] and [[running the gauntlet]]). One method of execution, since firearms came into common use, has also been firing squad, although some countries use execution with a single shot to the head or neck.

[[File:German announcement General Government Poland 1944.jpg|thumb|50 Poles tried and sentenced to death by a ''[[drumhead court-martial|Standgericht]]'' in retaliation for the assassination of 1 German policeman in [[Nazi crimes against the Polish nation|Nazi-occupied Poland]], 1944]]
Various authoritarian states employed the death penalty as a potent means of [[political repression|political oppression]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=1992-06-15 |title=Internal Workings of the Soviet Union – Revelations from the Russian Archives {{!}} Exhibitions – Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/intn.html |access-date=2023-04-03 |website=www.loc.gov}}</ref> Anti-Soviet author [[Robert Conquest]] claimed that more than one million [[Soviet Union#Stalin era (1927–1953)|Soviet citizens were executed]] during the [[Great Purge]] of 1936 to 1938, almost all by a bullet to the back of the head.<ref>Conquest, Robert, ''[[The Great Terror]]: A Reassessment'', New York, pp. 485–86</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2019-09-19 |title=The Desperate Plight Behind "Darkness at Noon" |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/30/the-desperate-plight-behind-darkness-at-noon |access-date=2023-04-03 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Mao Zedong]] publicly stated that "800,000" people had been executed in China during the [[Cultural Revolution]] (1966–1976). Partly as a response to such excesses, civil rights organisations started to place increasing emphasis on the concept of human rights and an abolition of the death penalty.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

===Contemporary era===
By continent, all European countries but one have abolished capital punishment;{{NoteTag|name=Belarus.|content=[[Capital punishment in Belarus|Belarus]]}} many Oceanian countries have abolished it;{{NoteTag|content=including [[Capital punishment in Australia|Australia]] and [[Capital punishment in New Zealand|New Zealand]].|name=ANZ}} most countries in the Americas have abolished its use,{{NoteTag|content=Most Latin American countries and [[Capital punishment in Canada|Canada]] have completely abolished capital punishment, while a few such as [[Capital punishment in Brazil|Brazil]] and [[Capital punishment in Guatemala|Guatemala]] allow for it only in exceptional situations (such as treason committed during wartime).|name=Americas}} while a few actively retain it;{{NoteTag|content=The [[Capital punishment in the United States|United States]] and some Caribbean countries.|name=US&Carib.}} less than half of countries in Africa retain it;{{NoteTag|content=For example [[Capital punishment in South Africa|South Africa]] abolished the death penalty in 1995, while [[Capital punishment in Botswana|Botswana]] and [[Capital punishment in Zambia|Zambia]] retain it.|name=Africa}} and the majority of countries in Asia retain it, for example, [[Capital punishment in China|China]], [[Capital punishment in Japan|Japan]] and [[Capital punishment in India|India]].<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Duggal |first1=Hanna |last2=Ali |first2=Marium |title=Map: Which countries still have the death penalty? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/16/map-which-countries-still-have-the-death-penalty-2023 |access-date=2024-01-19 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref>

Abolition was often adopted due to political change, as when countries shifted from authoritarianism to democracy, or when it became an entry condition for the EU. The United States is a notable exception: some states have had bans on capital punishment for decades, the earliest being [[Michigan]], where it was abolished in 1846, while other states still actively use it today. The death penalty in the United States remains a contentious issue which is [[Capital punishment debate in the United States|hotly debated]].

In retentionist countries, the debate is sometimes revived when a miscarriage of justice has occurred though this tends to cause legislative efforts to improve the judicial process rather than to abolish the death penalty. In abolitionist countries, the debate is sometimes revived by particularly brutal murders, though few countries have brought it back after abolishing it. However, a spike in serious, violent crimes, such as murders or terrorist attacks, has prompted some countries to effectively end the moratorium on the death penalty. One notable example is [[Capital punishment in Pakistan|Pakistan]] which in December 2014 lifted a six-year moratorium on executions after the [[2014 Peshawar school massacre|Peshawar school massacre]] during which 132 students and 9 members of staff of the Army Public School and Degree College Peshawar were killed by [[Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan]] terrorists, a group distinct from the [[Afghan Taliban]], who condemned the attack.<ref name="IBT">{{cite news |last=Sridharan |first=Vasudevan |url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/peshawar-massacre-afghan-taliban-condemn-un-islamic-pakistan-school-carnage-1479853 |title=Afghanistan: Afghan Taliban condemned 'un-Islamic' Pakistan school carnage |work=International Business Times |date=17 December 2014 |access-date=17 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622032821/https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/peshawar-massacre-afghan-taliban-condemn-un-islamic-pakistan-school-carnage-1479853 |archive-date=22 June 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Since then, Pakistan has executed over 400 convicts.<ref>{{cite web |title=465 prisoners sent to gallows since 2014, says report |url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/1451615/465-prisoners-sent-gallows-since-2014-says-report/ |publisher=tribune.com.pk |access-date=19 July 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706181850/https://tribune.com.pk/story/1451615/465-prisoners-sent-gallows-since-2014-says-report/ |archive-date=6 July 2017 |date=6 July 2017}}</ref>

In 2017, two major countries, [[Capital punishment in Turkey|Turkey]] and the [[Capital punishment in the Philippines|Philippines]], saw their executives making moves to reinstate the death penalty.<ref name="dpnythouse">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/world/asia/philippines-death-penalty.html|title=Philippines Moves Closer to Reinstating Death Penalty|first=Felipe|last=Villamor|date=1 March 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302103805/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/world/asia/philippines-death-penalty.html|archive-date=2 March 2017|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> In the same year, passage of the law in the Philippines failed to obtain the Senate's approval.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Romero|first1=Alexis|last2=Romero|first2=Paolo|title=Death penalty dead in Senate – Drilon|url=https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/04/27/1689114/death-penalty-dead-senate-drilon|access-date=10 October 2020|website=philstar.com}}</ref>

On 29 December 2021, after a 20-year moratorium, the Kazakhstan government enacted the 'On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the Abolition of the Death Penalty' signed by President [[Kassym-Jomart Tokayev]] as part of series of Omnibus reformations of the Kazak legal system 'Listening State' initiative.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-29 |title=Kazakhstan's President Signs Law Abolishing Death Penalty and Law on Commissioner for Human Rights |url=https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/308223?lang=en |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222112551/https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/308223?lang=en |archive-date=2022-02-22 |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=Government of Kazakhstan |language=}}</ref>