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Death Penalty

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Death Penalty
Capital punishment is used as an instrument for the judicial system to right a wrong that has been committed against society. Since the 1700s the laws surrounding the capital punishment issue have been refined through the judicial and legislature systems to the current use of today. The death penalty rests on strong foundation of symmetry and rightness. 11 The primary goal has evolved from one for state security to a more focused goal of doing justice and controlling crime.12 The globalization and the inequality are both factors in the controversy of the deterrence of capital punishment. Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, a philosopher in Italy, wrote “An Essay on Crime and Punishment” in 1764.8 The concerns he stated about the use of death as a punishment are very much the same today of judicial failures, inequality, and effect of deterrence. Beccaria's review was translated into several languages and very well known throughout the world in 1764. He is regarded as the most influential person in changing society’s perception of the death penalty.
The controversy surrounding the use of capital punishment has been a constant since the 1700s. The issues of use are rooted deep globally along with the injustices of inequality and the deterrence effect. Beccaria felt the judicial system had failed in interpretation of the law and making the law obscure. 8
Capital punishment has been used worldwide at some point in history. Ancient legal codes, from the Code of Hammurabi in 1750 B.C. to the Code of Theodosius in 438 A. D., have documented the use of death as punishment.4 During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there were one hundred sixty crimes punishable by death in England.4 It was during this time that Beccaria wrote his essay bringing the injustices to the forefront for the world to review.
Just recently, in the mid 1960’s, Western Europe took the stance that the death penalty was no longer needed in their society. Britain paved the way for abolishing the
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