The Use of Capital Punishment

The Use of Capital Punishment

Death penalty has been used to punish criminals for different types of offenses since prehistoric times. In Medieval England capital punishment was imposed for more than 300 of different crimes. Nowadays there is no common attitude toward death penalty, which is considered to be inhuman survival of the past, and a lot of countries have abolished its usage (e.g. European Union and members of European Council). According to Justin Healey, in the year 2004 76 countries and territories have abolished the death penalty for all crimes; 15 countries have abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes such as wartime crimes; 21 countries can be considered abolitionist in practice: they retain the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past 10 years or more and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions (3). That totals in 112 countries which have abolished death penalty lawfully or inpractice. Nevertheless, certain number of developed countries still uses putting convicts to death to prevent other crimes and provide justice for everybody