You see this big debate we all know as the death penalty and whether it should be acted or in acted all started as far back as the eighteenth-century b.c in Code of the King Hammurabi of Babylon. At this point of time in ancient history the death penalty was carried out by such means as crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. A lot of crime that gave people the death penalty was witchcraft, buying stolen property, theft, kidnap and more, all except murder which in these times wasn’t as serious as it is now publicly. You see murder now days are the prime source for receiving the death penalty under the law that if you kill someone you will be killed no questions or if ands and butts about it, but back then it…show more content… By the 1700s, around two hundred crimes were punishable by death in Britain, including stealing, cutting down a tree, and robbing a rabbit warren. This lead to reforms of Britain's death penalty. Through, 1823 -1837, the death penalty was eliminated for over one hundred of the two hundred crimes punishable by death. (Randa, 1997) You see according to the Death Penalty’s Information Center “Britain influenced America's use of the death penalty more than any other country” (Death, Penalty Info). When Europe people (white people) came to the new world, they brought the practice of capital punishment and the death penalty all while doing a little punishment off the front end themselves, which included slavery, hanging, lynching, fighting, fear, Indians and more. You see in the Indians case of 1612, Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Ethical and Military Laws, which provided the death penalty for even minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with the Indians if caught. The first recorded execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. The Captain got caught and was executed for being a spy for
