capital punishment, execution of an offender sentenced todeath afterconviction by acourt of law of a criminal offense. Capital punishment should be distinguished from extrajudicial executions carried out withoutdue process oflaw. The termdeath penalty is sometimes used interchangeably withcapital punishment, though imposition of thepenalty is not always followed by execution (even when it is upheld on appeal), because of the possibility of commutation to life imprisonment.

Historical considerations

Capital punishment formurder,treason,arson, andrape was widely employed inancient Greece under the laws ofDraco (fl. 7th centurybce), thoughPlato argued that it should be used only for theincorrigible. The Romans also used it for a wide range of offenses, though citizens were exempted for a short time during the republic. It also has been sanctioned at one time or another by most of the world’s major religions. Followers ofJudaism and Christianity, for example, have claimed to find justification for capital punishment in thebiblical passage “Whosoever sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6). Yet capital punishment has been prescribed for many crimes not involving loss of life, includingadultery andblasphemy. The ancient legal principleLex talionis (talion)—“aneye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life”—which appears in the BabylonianCode of Hammurabi, wasinvoked in some societies to ensure that capital punishment was not disproportionately applied.

The prevalence of capital punishment in ancient times is difficult toascertain precisely, but it seems likely that it was often avoided, sometimes by thealternative ofbanishment and sometimes by payment ofcompensation. For example, it was customary duringJapan’s peacefulHeian period (794–1185) for the emperor to commute every deathsentence and replace it withdeportation to a remote area, though executions were reinstated once civil war broke out in the mid-11th century.

InIslamic law, as expressed in theQurʾān, capital punishment iscondoned. Although the Qurʾān prescribes the death penalty for severalḥadd (fixed) crimes—including robbery, adultery, andapostasy ofIslam—murder is not among them. Instead, murder is treated as a civilcrime and is covered by the law ofqiṣās (retaliation), whereby the relatives of the victim decide whether the offender is punished with death by the authorities or made to paydiyah (wergild) as compensation.

Death was formerly the penalty for a large number of offenses inEngland during the 17th and 18th centuries, but it was never applied as widely as the law provided. As in other countries, many offenders who committed capital crimes escaped the death penalty, either because juries or courts would not convict them or because they were pardoned, usually on condition that they agreed to banishment; some were sentenced to the lesser punishment of transportation to the thenAmerican colonies and later to Australia. Beginning in the Middle Ages, it was possible for offenders guilty of capital offenses to receivebenefit of clergy, by which those who could prove that they were ordained priests (clerks in Holy Orders) as well assecular clerks who assisted in divine service (or, from 1547, a peer of the realm) were allowed to go free, though it remained within the judge’s power to sentence them toprison for up to a year, or from 1717 onward to transportation for seven years. Because duringmedieval times the only proof of ordination was literacy, it became customary between the 15th and 18th centuries to allow anyone convicted of a felony to escape the death sentence by proving that he (the privilege was extended to women in 1629) could read. Until 1705, all he had to do was read (or recite) the first verse fromPsalm 51 of the Bible—“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions”—which came to be known as the “neck verse” (for its power to save one’s neck). To ensure that an offender could escape death only once through benefit of clergy, he was branded on the brawn of the thumb (M for murder orT for theft). Branding wasabolished in 1779, and benefit of clergy ceased in 1827.

From ancient times until well into the 19th century, many societies administered exceptionally cruel forms of capital punishment. InRome the condemned were hurled from the Tarpeian Rock (seeTarpeia); for parricide they were drowned in a sealed bag with a dog, cock, ape, and viper; and still others were executed by forced gladiatorial combat or bycrucifixion. Executions in ancientChina were carried out by many painful methods, such as sawing the condemned in half, flaying him while still alive, andboiling. Cruel forms of execution inEurope included “breaking” on the wheel, boiling in oil,burning at the stake,decapitation by theguillotine or an axe,hanging,drawing and quartering, and drowning. Although by the end of the 20th century manyjurisdictions (e.g., nearly everyU.S. state that employs the death penalty, Guatemala, thePhilippines,Taiwan, and some Chinese provinces) had adoptedlethal injection, offenders continued to be beheaded inSaudi Arabia and occasionally stoned to death (for adultery) inIran andSudan. Other methods of execution wereelectrocution, gassing, and the firing squad.

Historically, executions were public events, attended by large crowds, and the mutilated bodies were often displayed until they rotted.Public executions were banned in England in 1868, though they continued to take place in parts of theUnited States until the 1930s. In the last half of the 20th century, there was considerable debate regarding whether executions should be broadcast on television, as has occurred in Guatemala. Since the mid-1990s public executions have taken place in some 20 countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, andNigeria, though the practice has been condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Committee as “incompatible with human dignity.”

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In many countries death sentences are not carried out immediately after they are imposed; there is often a long period of uncertainty for the convicted while their cases are appealed. Inmates awaiting execution live on what has been called “death row”; in the United States and Japan, some prisoners have been executed more than 15 years after theirconvictions. TheEuropean Union regards this phenomenon as so inhumane that, on the basis of a binding ruling by theEuropean Court of Human Rights (1989), EU countries may extradite an offender accused of a capital crime to acountry that practices capital punishment only if a guarantee is given that the death penalty will not be sought.