Capital punishment

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a state-sanctioned practice of killing someone as a punishment for a crime. Thirty-five countries retain capital punishment, 108 countries have completely abolished it de jure for all crimes, seven have abolished it for ordinary crimes, and 47 are abolitionist in practice. Execution of criminals and dissidents has been used by nearly all societies since the beginning of civilizations on Earth.

About Capital punishment in brief

Summary Capital punishmentCapital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a state-sanctioned practice of killing someone as a punishment for a crime. Crimes that are punishable by death are known as capital crimes, capital offences or capital felonies. Thirty-five countries retain capital punishment, 108 countries have completely abolished it de jure for all crimes, seven have abolished it for ordinary crimes, and 47 are abolitionist in practice. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are punished by death penalty. In many countries, drug trafficking and often drug possession is also a capital offence. In the European Union, Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European EU prohibits the use of capital punishment. The Council of Europe, which has 47 member states, has sought to abolish the Use of the Death Penalty by its members absolutely. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted, throughout the years from 2007 to 2018, seven non-binding resolutions calling for a global moratorium on executions. Execution of criminals and dissidents has been used by nearly all societies since the beginning of civilizations on Earth. Until the nineteenth century, without developed prison systems, there was frequently no workable alternative to ensure deterrence and incapacitation of criminals. In pre-modern times the executions themselves often involved torture with cruel and painful methods, such as the breaking wheel, keelhauling, sawing, hanging, drawing, and quartering, burning at the stake, flaying, 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. In some countries such as China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, as well as in Japan and Taiwan. Some countries that practise capital punishment are reserved for terrorism, rape, incest, sodomy, and bestiality. In militaries around the world, insubstantial courts have imposed death sentences for offences such as desert hirabah, moharebehare, apostasy, blasphemy, witchcraft and witchcraft. The use of formal execution extends to the start of recorded history. It may result from crime, land disputes or a code of honour. This form of justice was common before the emergence of an arbitration system based on state or organized religion. In tribal societies, compensation and shunning were often considered enough as a form of Justice. It is now used for murder, treason, espionage, treason and as part of military justice. In most countries, it is now reserved for war crimes, terrorism, sexual crimes, rape and sodomy. In other countries it is also reserved for rape, sexual sex crimes, incest and sexual crimes such as sodomy,. Some countries have reserved capital punishment for rape and incest for some sexual crimes. The death penalty is imposed for serious cases such as apostasy and Qisasas, as do religious crimes.