The Constitutionality of the Death Penalty

The constitutionality of the death penalty
By Christina Doelitzsch

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In researching this topic I came upon a lot more information then I even realized when it came to the death penalty.  The death penalty goes far back in history and actually the first

Truly established death penalty laws according to (deathpenaltyinfo.org/article) dated as far back as the eighteenth century B.C by King Hammaurabi of Babylon.  This king enacted the death penalty for approximately 25 different crimes as well as the fourteenth century where the death penalty was the only real punishment of crimes.  Some of the methods used then were crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive and impalement.  It’s easy to wonder how such methods became commonplace and how it changed and evolved over the years.  If you go through history you can find the death penalty everywhere.  The Salem witch trials for example where so many people were accused of being witches and were stoned, hanged, and also burned alive.  King Henry the eighth of the 16th century was famous for his brutal ways of invoking death and used many methods such as boiling, beheading, drawn and quartering and the crimes to justify these brutal acts could have been as minor as taking an apple off of someone else’s apple tree.  Would we think that this was justice just being carried out or barbaric pleasure by those in power.  The annihilation of Jews by Hitler could be construed as a death penalty enacted over the crime of believing in the wrong religion or being the wrong race. These brutal ways of ending life seems all too barbaric to us of present day but is taking a life in any way ethical.  I suppose this is where the paper comes in to play as to the posed question.  Is the death penalty constitutional?  The Death penalty in America was influenced by Britain in that they believed in capital punishment and as it became the way America utilized it as well.  We must remember also as history states that Britain was in control of America and there reign and rules were automatically adapted in America until we broke free of there reign.   Much has changed over the years however since the Death Penalty