University of Lisbon

Faculty of law

THE DEATH PENALTY AND THE ONGOING

DISCUSSION SURROUNDING IT

MARCH 27 2023

DINIS FONSECA

Student number: 64831

 Introduction

This essay briefly discusses the origins of capital punishment as a form of punishment
and its history.

The numerous arguments of the defendants of the death penalty and the abolitionists
are also mentioned.

Finally, the case of the young boy George Stinney is described and its relevance to this
debate is mentioned.

The past of the death Penalty

The origins of the death penalty dates back to the B.C. when the code of the Babylonian
king Hammurabi first codified the death penalty as a punishment for 25 different crimes.
In subsequent years, other death penalty laws were created and implemented, including
the Hittite Code (Fourteenth Century B.C.), the Draconian Code of Athens (seventh
century B.C.), which prescribed death as the sole punishment for all crimes, and the
Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets (fifth century B.C.). Over the years, death sentences
were carried out by the most cruel and inhumane means like crucifixion, drowning,
beating to death, burning alive, impaling, and other methods.

In the Tenth Century A.C., hanging became the standard method of execution in Britain.
However, the use of capital punishment met resistance in the following century when
William the Conqueror stopped allowing people to be hanged or otherwise executed for
a crime except in times of war. Unfortunately, this new way did not last, as an estimated
72,000 people were executed in the sixteenth century under the reign of Henry VIII.

The number of capital crimes in Britain continued to increase over the next two
centuries. By the seventh century, 222 crimes were punishable by death in Britain,
including theft, cutting down a tree, and robbing a rabbit hutch.

Britain influenced the use of capital punishment in America more than any other
country. When European settlers came to the New World, they brought the practice of
capital punishment with them. The first recorded execution in the new colonies was that
of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was
executed for being a spy for Spain. In 1612, Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale enacted

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the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, which provided the death penalty for even minor
offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens and trading with Indians.

The world debate about the death penalty

Since its first appearance, the death penalty has been enforced worldwide as a form of
punishment with little to no resistance. It is only relatively recently that the death penalty
has been viewed as the wrong form of punishment. Today, according to the map, more
than two-thirds of the world has abolished the death penalty, showing a clear shift in the
general opinion toward capital punishment.

Over the years, many arguments have been made in defense of retaining or abolishing
the death penalty. Among these arguments in favor of death penalty proponents are:

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  To humans, death is the most horrible thing imaginable, and therefore the death
penalty seems to deter criminals from committing serious crimes.
 The argument of abolitionists that the death penalty is cruel and inhumane is
invalidated by new quick, painless, and humane methods of execution.
 The legal system is constantly evolving to maximize justice. That the legal
system may make a wrong decision does not mean that the death penalty is
wrong. In the United States, every effort is made to allow death row prisoners
to challenge the court's decisions. Modern methods of crime detection, such as
DNA testing, also give greater certainty of guilt than in the past.
 The argument is also often made that the death penalty can provide some closure
for victims' families, which can help them cope with their suffering.
 It is a cost-effective solution. The idea put forth by abolitionists that it costs
more to execute someone than to incarcerate them for life is simply not true, and
there is ample evidence to support it.

On the other side, the abolitionists argue that:

 Although death is the most terrible thing that can happen to a person, there is no
credible evidence that the death penalty is works as a deterrent. Looking at the
U.S., in states where the death penalty has been abolished, the number of serious
crimes, such as murder, has not changed significantly.
 Although proponents of the death penalty argue that capital punishment is not a
cruel and unusual punishment today, the opposite can be argued, as capital
punishment endangers or undermines basic standards of human dignity.
 That the death penalty is basically just a form of faulty thinking, that two wrongs
can make a right, which is an idea incompatible with modern thinking.
 The justice system inevitably makes mistakes, and therefore in cases where
people are wrongfully executed, the victim can never be righted. Prison
sentences (even life imprisonment) seem more in line with the almost inevitable
reality in which the justice system makes mistakes, since a wrongfully
imprisoned person can be released from prison and receive compensation.
 The death penalty is not cost-effective. Considering all practical and legal costs,
execution is clearly more expensive than life imprisonment.

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  Life in prison is a worse punishment than execution. A prisoner with a life
sentence has many years to endure their punishment, feel remorse and reflect on
their crimes.
 There are strong religious arguments against capital punishment. Life is sacred
and given by God. Divine judgment comes only in the afterlife.

The death penalty continues to exist in many parts of the world, with the majority of
countries having abolished it in law or in practice. The United States remains an outlier
among its close allies and other democracies in that it continues to use the death penalty.

The death penalty is not prohibited by international law, but the majority of nations
consider it a violation of human rights. In evaluating U.S. standards of decency and what
should be considered cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, the
worldwide application of the death penalty is relevant. Some Supreme Court justices have
cited international law, particularly with respect to certain groups of defendants such as
juvenile offenders, as additional confirmation of their own conclusions on the death
penalty.

The death penalty in America

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 The famous case of George Stinney

George Stinney was an African American boy that lived in Alcolu, South Carolina. In
March 1944, two girls (Betty Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Thames, age 8) disappeared
near the Stinney family home. George and his brother were detained after police were
told that the two girls had last been seen talking to George.

George's brother Johnny was released, but George was detained at the police station,
where he was questioned only by white police officers and without the presence of an
attorney. After less than an hour, the boy confessed to Deputy H. S. Newman that he had
committed the crime. In the alleged confession, George admitted that he wanted to have
sex with Betty Binnicker, but the presence of Mary Thames disturbed him. He then
allegedly killed both girls with a 38 centimeters iron bar. Despite these details, no
statement or confession was signed by George Stinney.

A day later, the boy was charged with the murder of Betty Binnicker and Mary Thames
and inevitably sentenced to death by electric chair, as he was considered an adult under
South Carolina law. However, in December 2014, seventy years after George's death, a
judge overturned that conviction and declared George Stinney innocent.

Today, this case is used by abolitionists as an example of the severe consequences of

the wrongfully sentencing to the death penalty and the inhumane history of capital
punishment.

Bibliography

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“Execution in South Carolina: 14-Year-Old George Stinney Convicted in 1944 -

YouTube.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-ELg87IxcQ.
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“Human Rights Council Holds Biennial High-Level Panel Discussion on the Question of
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