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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 282 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

CAPITAL See also:PUNISHMENT . By this See also:term is now meant the infliction of the See also:penalty of See also:death for See also:crime under the See also:sentence of some properly constituted authority, as distinguished from killing the offender as a See also:matter of self-See also:defence or private vengeance, or under the See also:order of some self-constituted or irregular tribunal unknown to the See also:law, such as that of the Vigilantes of See also:California, or of See also:lynch law (q.v.). In the See also:early stages of society a See also:man-slayer was killed by the " avenger of See also:blood " on behalf of the See also:family of the man killed, and not as representing the authority of the See also:state (See also:Pollock and See also:Maitland, Hist. Eng. Law, ii. 447.) This mode of dealing with See also:homicide survives in the See also:vendetta of See also:Corsica and of the Mainotes in See also:Greece, and in certain of the See also:southern states of See also:North See also:America. The See also:obligation or inclination to take vengeance depends on the fact of homicide, and not on the circumstances in which it was committed, i.e. it is a See also:part of the lex talionis. The See also:mischief of this See also:system was alleviated under the Levitical law by the creation of cities of See also:refuge, and in Greece and See also:Italy, both in See also:Pagan and See also:Christian times, by the recognition of the right of See also:sanctuary in temples and churches. A second mode of dealing with homicide was that known to early See also:Teutonic and early See also:Celtic law, where the relatives of the deceased, instead of the See also:life of the slayer, received the wer of the deceased, i.e. a See also:payment in proportion to the See also:rank of the slain, and the See also:king received the blood-wite for the loss of his man. But even under this system certain crimes were in Anglo-Saxon law bot-less, i.e. no See also:compensation could be paid, and the offender must suffer the penalty of death. In the See also:laws of Khammurabi, king of See also:Babylon (2285–2242 s.e.), the death penalty is imposed for many offences. The modes for executing it specially named are burning, drowning and impalement (See also:Oldest See also:Code of Laws, by C.

H. W. Johns, 1903). Under the See also:

Roman law, " capital " punishment also included punishments which deprived the offender of the status of Roman See also:citizen (capitis deminutio, capitis amissio), e.g. condemnation to See also:servitude in the mines or to See also:deportation to an See also:island (Dig. 48. 19). See also:United See also:Kingdom.—The modes of capital punishment in See also:England under the Saxon and Danish See also:kings were various: See also:British and See also:hanging, See also:beheading, burning, drowning, stoning, and See also:foreign precipitation from rocks. The principle on which this laws and variety depended was that where an offence was methods. such as to entitle the king to outlaw the offender, he forfeited all, life and See also:limb, lands and goods, and that the king might take his life and choose the mode of death. See also:William the Conqueror would not allow See also:judgment of death to be executed by hanging and substituted See also:mutilation; but his successors varied somewhat in their policy as to capital punishment, and by the 13th See also:century the penalty of death became by usage (with-out legislation) the usual punishment for high and See also:petty See also:treason and for all felonies (except See also:mayhem and petty See also:larceny, i.e. See also:theft of See also:property See also:worth less than Is.); see See also:Stephen, Hist. Cr. Law, vol. i. 458; Pollock and Maitland, Hist.

Eng. Law, vol. ii. 459• It therefore included all the more serious forms of crime against See also:

person or property, such as See also:murder, See also:manslaughter, See also:arson, high-way See also:robbery, See also:burglary (or hamesucken) and larceny; and when statutory felonies were created they were also punishable by death unless the See also:statute otherwise provided. The death penalty was also extended to heretics under the See also:writ de heretico comburendo, which was lawfully issuable under statute from 1382 (5 Ric. II. stat. 5) until 1677 (29 Chas. II. c. 9). For this purpose the legislature had adopted the See also:civil law of the Roman See also:Empire, which was not a part of the See also:English See also:common law (Stephen, Hist. Cr. Law, vol. ii. 438-469).

The methods of See also:

execution by crucifixion (as under the Roman law), or breaking on the See also:wheel (as under the Roman Dutch law and the See also:Holy Roman Empire), were never recognized by the common law, and would fall within the term " cruel and unusual punishments " in the English See also:Bill of Rights, and in the United States would seem to be unconstitutional (see See also:Wilkinson v. See also:Utah, 1889, 136 U.S. 436, 446). The severity of See also:barbarian and feudal laws was mitigated, so far as common-law offences were concerned, by the See also:influence ofthe See also:Church as the inheritor of Christian traditions and Roman See also:jurisprudence. The Roman law under the empire did not allow the execution of citizens except under the Lex Portia. But the right of the emperors to legislate per rescriplum principis enabled them to disregard the See also:ordinary law when so disposed. The 83rd novel of Justinian provided that criminal causes against clerics, should be tried by the See also:judges, and that the convicted cleric should be degraded by his See also:bishop before his condemnation by the See also:secular See also:power, and other novels gave the bishops considerable influence, if not authority, over the See also:lay judiciary. In western See also:Europe the right given by imperial legislation in the Eastern Empire was utilized by the Papacy to claim See also:privilege of See also:clergy, i.e. that clerks must be remitted to the bishop for canonical punishment, and not subjected to civil condemnation at all. The See also:history of benefit of clergy is given in Pollock and Maitland, Hist. English Law, vol. i. pp. 424-440, and Stephen, Hist. Cr.

Law, vol. iii. 459, 463. By degrees the privilege was extended not only to persons who could prove ordination or show a genuine See also:

tonsure, but all persons who had sufficient learning to be able to read the See also:neck-See also:verse (Ps. li. v. 1). Before the See also:Reformation the ecclesiastical courts had ceased to take any effective See also:action with respect to clerks accused of offences against the king's laws; and by the See also:time of See also:Henry VII. burning on the See also:hand under the order of the king's judges was substituted for the old See also:process of See also:compurgation in use in the spiritual courts. The effect of the claim of benefit of clergy is said to have been to increase the number of convictions, though it mitigated the punishment; and it became, in fact, a means of showing See also:mercy to certain classes of individuals convicted of crime as a See also:kind of privilege to the educated, i.e. to all clerks whethei secular or religious (25 Edw. III. stat. 3); and it was allowed only in See also:case of a first conviction, except in the case of clerks who could produce their letters of orders or a certificate of ordination. To prevent a second claim it was the practice to See also:brand murderers with the See also:letter M, and other felons with the See also:Tyburn T, and See also:Ben See also:Jonson was in 1598 so marked for manslaughter. The reign of Henry VIII. was marked by extreme severity in the execution of criminals—as during this time 72,000 persons are said to have been hanged. After the formation of English settlements in America the severity of the law was mitigated by the practice of reprieving persons sentenced to death on See also:condition of their consenting to be transported to the See also:American colonies, and to enter into See also:bond service there. The practice seems to have been borrowed from See also:Spain, and to have been begun in 1597 (39 Eliz. c.

4). It was applied by See also:

Cromwell after his See also:campaign in See also:Ireland, and was in full force immediately after the Restoration, and is recognized in the Habeas Corpus See also:Act 1677, and was used for the See also:Cameronians during Claverhouse's campaign in See also:south-See also:west See also:Scotland. In the 18th century the courts were empowered to sentence felons to transportation (see DEPORTATION) instead of to execution, and this state of the law continued until 1857 (6 Law Quarterly See also:Review, p. 388). This power to sentence to transportation at first applied only to felonies with benefit of clergy; but in 1705, on the abolition of the See also:necessity of proving capacity to read, all criminals alike became entitled to the benefit previously reserved to clerks. Benefit of clergy was finally abolished in 1827 as to all persons not having privilege of See also:peerage, and in 1841 as to peers and peeresses. Its beneficial effect had now been exhausted, since no clergyable offences remained capital crimes. At the end of the 18th century the criminal law of all Europe was ferocious and indiscriminate in its See also:administration of capital punishment for almost all forms of See also:grave crime; and yet owing to poverty, social conditions, and the inefficiency of the See also:police, such forms of crime were far more numerous than they now are. The policy and righteousness of the English law were questioned as early as 1766 by See also:Goldsmith through the mouth of the See also:vicar of See also:Wakefield: " Nor can I avoid even questioning the validity of that right which social combinations have assumed of capitally punishing offences of a slight nature. In cases of murder their right is obvious, as it is the See also:duty of us all from the law of self-4srQnce to cut off that See also:mar.: who has shown a disregard for the life of another. Against such all nature rises in arms; but it is not so against him who steals my property." He adds later: " When by indiscriminate penal laws the nation beholds the same punishment affixed to dissimilar degrees of See also:guilt, the See also:people are led to lose all sense of distinction in the crime, and this distinction is the See also:bulwark of all morality." The See also:opinion expressed by Goldsmith was strongly supported by See also:Bentham, See also:Romilly, See also:Basil See also:Montagu and See also:Mackintosh in England, and resulted in considerable mitigation of the severity of the law. In 1800 over 200 and in 1819 about 18o crimes were capital.

As the result of the labour of these eminent men and their disciples, and of See also:

Sir See also:Robert See also:Peel, there are now only four crimes (other than offences against military law or See also:naval discipline) capitally punishable in England—high treason, murder, piracy with violence, and destruction of public arsenals and See also:dockyards (The Dockyards, &c., See also:Protection Act 1772). An See also:attempt to abolish the death penalty for this last offence was made in 1837, but failed, and has not since been renewed. In the case of the last two offences sentence of death need not be pronounced, but may be recorded (4 Geo. IV. c. 48). Since 1838 it has in practice been executed only for murder; the method being by hanging. The See also:change in the severity of the law is best illustrated by the following See also:statistics: Death Sentences. Sentences Executed. Years. For all For For all For Crimes. Murder. Crimes.

Murder. 1831 16oi 14 52 12 1833 ' 931 9 33 6 18381 n6 25 6 5 18621 29 28 15 15 During the twelve years from 1893 to 1904, 788 persons were committed for trial for murder, being an See also:

average of 65. The highest number was in 1893 (82) and the lowest in 1900 (51). Of those tried in 1904, 28 (26 See also:males and 2 See also:females) were convicted of murder, 16 (all males) were executed; 9 males and 2 females had their sentences commuted to penal servitude for life. In Scotland capital punishment can be imposed only for treason, murder and offences against ro Geo. IV. C. 38, i.e. wilful See also:shooting, stabbing, strangling or throwing corrosives with See also:intent to murder, maim, disfigure, disable, or do grievous bodily harm, in all cases where if death had ensued the offence would have been murder. See also:Prior to 1887 See also:rape, robbery, wilful See also:fire-raising and See also:incest, and many other crimes•, were also capital offences; but in practice the pains of law were restricted at the instance of the See also:prosecution. The method is by hanging. In Ireland capital punishment may be inflicted for the same offences as in England, except offences under the Dockyards Protection Act 1772, and it is carried out in the same manner. Offences under Military Law.—Thus far only crimes against the ordinary Iaw of the See also:land have been dealt with.

But both the Naval Discipline Act of 1866 and the See also:

Army Act empower courts-See also:martial to pass sentence for a number of offences against military and naval laws. Such sentences are rarely if ever passed where an ordinary See also:court is within reach, or except in time of See also:war. The offences extend from traitorous communication with the enemy and cowardice on the See also:field to falling asleep while acting as a See also:sentinel on active service. It is for the authority confirming a sentence of death by court-martial to See also:direct the mode of execution, which both in the British and United States armies is usually by shooting or hanging. During the See also:Indian See also:Mutiny some mutineers were executed by being blown from the mouth of See also:cannon. As to the history of military punishments see Clode, Military and Martial Law. 1 Each of these years followed upon legislation mitigating severity of punishment British Colonies and Possessions.—Under the Indian Penal Code sentence of death may be passed for waging war against the king (s. 121) and for murder (s. 302). If the murder is committed by a man under sentence of transportation for life the death penalty must be imposed (s. 303). In other cases it is alternative.

This code has been in substance adopted in See also:

Ceylon, in Straits Settlements and Hong-See also:Kong, and in the See also:Sudan. In most of the British colonies and possessions the death penalty may be imposed only in the case of high treason, wilful murder and piracy with violence. But in New South See also:Wales and See also:Victoria sentence of death may be passed for rape and criminal abuse of girls under ten. In See also:Queensland the law was the same until the passing of the Criminal Code of 1899. Under the See also:Canadian Criminal Code of 1892 the death sentence may be imposed for treason (s. 657), murder (s. 231), rape (s. 267), piracy with violence (s. 127), and upon subjects of a friendly power who See also:levy war on the king in See also:Canada (s. 68). But the See also:judge is See also:bound by statute to See also:report on all death sentences, and the date of execution is fixed so as to give time for considering the report. The sentence is executed by hanging.

In South See also:

Africa the criminal law is based on the Roman-Dutch law, under which capital punishment is liable for treason (crimen perduellionis or laesae majestatis), murder and rape (See also:van Leeuwen, c. 36). In the Cape See also:Colony rape is still capital (R. v. Nonosi, 1885; i See also:Buchanan, 1898). In See also:Natal rape may be punished by hanging (act no. 22, 1898). Though the Roman-Dutch modes of executing the sentence by decapitation or breaking on the wheel have not been formally abolished, in practice the sentence in the Cape Colony is executed by hanging. In the See also:Transvaal hanging is now the See also:sole mode of executing capital punishment (Criminal See also:Procedure Code, 1903, s. 244). The Roman-Dutch law as to crime and punishments has been superseded in Ceylon and British See also:Guiana by See also:ordinance. See also:Austria-See also:Hungary.—In Austria capital punishment was in 1787 for a time abolished, but was reintroduced in 1795 for high treason, and in 1803 for certain other crimes. Under the penal code" still in force in 1906 it might be inflicted for the offences in the table given below, but not on offenders who were under twenty when they committed the offence.

The annexed table indicates that the full sentence was sparingly executed. Under a Penal Code drafted in 1906, however, only two offences were made capital, viz. high treason against the person of the See also:

emperor and the graver cases of murder. The sentence is executed by hanging. See also:Belgium.—Under the Belgian Penal Code of 1867 the death penalty is retained for certain forms of high treason, and for assassination and See also:parricide by poisoning. It may not be pronounced on a person under eighteen. The sentence is executed publicly by the See also:guillotine. No execution seems to have taken See also:place since 1863. See also:Denmark.—Sentence of death may be imposed for most forms of high treason, aggravated cases of murder, rape and piracy. It is executed publicly by the See also:axe. Offenders under eighteen are not liable. See also:Finland.—In Finland the death penalty is alleged not to have been inflicted since 1824. It may be imposed for the assassination of the See also:grand See also:duke or grand duchess of the See also:head of a friendly state, and wilful murder of other persons.

See also:

France.—Under the ancien regime in France, 115 crimes had become capital in 1789. The mode of execution varied, but in some cases it was effected by breaking on the wheel or burning, 1853 to 1873. 1875 to 1900. 1901 to 1903. Crimes Punishable by Death. See also:Con- Executed. Con- Executed. Con- Executed. demned. demned. demned. High treason 4 0 1 0 0 0 Murder, s.

136 . . . . 880 102 2085 81 180 9 Killing by robbers, s. 141 12 3 35 i 3 0 Public violence, ss. 85, 87 . .. .. 1 0 0 0 See also:

Incendiarism, s. 167 5 0 0 0 0 0 Criminal use of See also:explosives .. .. .. . (explosives law, S.

4). and was coupled with mutilation. Under the Penal Code of 181o, as amended in or after 1832, even so See also:

late as 1871, See also:thirty offences were capital, one being See also:perjury against a prisoner resulting in his condemnation to death (See also:art. 361). At See also:present it may be imposed for wounding a public See also:official with intent to murder (art. 233), assassination, parricide, poisoning, killing to commit a crime or See also:escape from See also:justice (arts. 302, 304). But juries freely exercise the power of acquitting in capital cases, or of defeating the capital sentence by finding extenuating circumstances in more than seven-eighths of the cases, which compels the court to reduce the punishment by one or more degrees, i.e. below the penalty of death. And in See also:recent times the See also:prerogative of mercy has been continually exercised by the See also:president, even in See also:gross cases where public opinion demanded the extreme penalty. The sentence is executed in public by the guillotine. See also:Germany.—In many of the states of Germany capital punishment had been abolished (See also:Brunswick, See also:Coburg, See also:Nassau, Olden-See also:burg in 1849; See also:Saxe-See also:Meiningen, Saxe-See also:Weimar, 1862; See also:Baden, 1863; See also:Saxony, 1868). But it has been restored by the Imperial Criminal Code of 1872, in the case of attempts on the life of the emperor, or of the See also:sovereign of any federal state in which the offender happens to be (s.

8o), and for deliberate homicide (s. 211) —as opposed to intentional homicide without deliberation—and for certain treasonable acts committed when a state of See also:

siege has been proclaimed. The sentence is executed by beheading (s. 13). See also:Holland.—In Holland there have been no executions since 1860. Capital punishment (by hanging) was abolished in 1870, and was not reintroduced in the Penal Code of 1886. Italy.—Capital punishment was abolished in See also:Tuscany as far back as 1786, and from Italy has come the See also:chief opposition to the death penalty, originated by See also:Beccaria, and supported by many eminent jurists. Under the Penal Code of 1888 the death penalty was abrogated for all crimes, even for See also:regicide. The cases of homicide in Italy are very numerous compared with those in England, amounting in 1905 to 105 per million as compared with 27 per million in the United Kingdom. See also:Japan.—The penalty of death is executed by hanging within a See also:prison. It may be imposed for executing or contriving acts of violence against the See also:mikado or certain of his family, and for seditious violence with the See also:object of seizing the territory or subverting the See also:government or laws of Japan, or conspiring with foreign See also:powers to commence hostilities against Japan. It is inflicted for certain forms of homicide, substantially wilful murder in the first degree.

See also:

Norway.—Under See also:Norwegian law, up to 1905, sentence of death might be passed for murder with premeditation, but the court might as an alternative See also:decree penal servitude for life. Sentence of death had also to be passed in cases where a person under sentence of penal servitude for life committed murder or culpable homicide, or caused bodily injuries in circumstances warranting a sentence of penal servitude for life, or committed robbery or the graver forms of wilful fire-raising. The sentence was carried out by decapitation (see BEHEADING) ; but there had been no execution since 1876. The new Norwegian Code, which came into force on the 6th of See also:January 1905, abolished capital punishment. See also:Portugal.—There has been considerable objection in Portugal to capital punishment, and it was abolished in 1867. See also:Rumania.—Capital punishment was abolished in 1864. See also:Russia.—In 1750, under the empress See also:Elizabeth, capital punishment was abolished; but it was restored later and was freely inflicted, the sentence being executed by shooting, beheading or hanging. According to a See also:Home See also:Office Return in England in 1907 the death penalty is abolished, except in cases where the lives of the emperor, empress or See also:heir to the See also:throne are concerned. Spain.—Under the See also:Spanish Penal Code of 187o the following crimes are capital:—inducing a foreign power to declare war against Spain, killing the sovereign, parricide and assassination. The method employed is execution in public by the See also:garrote. But the death sentence is rarely imposed, the customary penalty for murder being penal servitude in chains for life, while a parricide is imprisoned in chains " in See also:perpetuity until death." See also:Sweden.—The severity of the law in Sweden was greatly mitigated so far back as 1777. Under the Penal Code of 1864 the penalty of death may be imposed for certain forms of treason, including attempts on the life of the sovereign or on the See also:independence of Sweden, and for premeditated homicide (assassinat), and in certain cases for offences committed by persons under sentence of imprisonment for life.

In 1901 a bill to abolish capital punishment was rejected by both houses of the See also:

Swedish See also:parliament. See also:Switzerland.—Capital punishment was abolished in Switzer-land in 1874 by Federal legislation; but in 1879, in consequence of a See also:plebiscite, each See also:canton was empowered to restore the death penalty for offences in its territory. The Federal government was unwilling to take this course, but was impelled to it by the fact that, between 1874 and 1879, cases of premeditated murder had considerably increased. Seven of the cantons out of twenty-two have exercised the power given to restore capital punishment. But there do not seem to have been any cases in which the death penalty has been inflicted; and on the assassination of the empress of Austria at See also:Geneva in 1898 it was found that the laws of the canton did not permit the execution of the See also:assassin. The canton of See also:Zug imposes the lowest minimum penalty known, i.e. three years' imprisonment for wilful homicide, the maximum being imprisonment for life. United States of America.—Under the Federal laws sentence of death may be passed for treason against the United States and for piracy and for murder within the Federal See also:jurisdiction. But for the most part the punishment of crime is regulated by the laws of the constituent states of the See also:Union. The death penalty was abolished in See also:Michigan in 1846 except for treason, and wholly in See also:Wisconsin in 1853. In See also:Maine it was abolished in 1876, re-enacted in 1883, and again abolished in 1887. In Rhode Island it was abolished in 1852, but restored in 1882, only in case of murder committed by a person under sentence of imprisonment for life (Laws, 1896, c. 277, s.

2). In all the other states the death penalty may still be inflicted: in See also:

Alabama, See also:Delaware, See also:Georgia, See also:Maryland, and West See also:Virginia, for treason, murder, arson and rape; in See also:Alaska, See also:Arizona, See also:Kansas, New See also:Jersey, See also:Mississippi, See also:Montana, New See also:York, North Dakota, See also:Oregon, and South Dakota, for treason and murder; in See also:Colorado, See also:Idaho, See also:Illinois, See also:Iowa, See also:Massachusetts, See also:Minnesota, See also:Nebraska, New See also:Hampshire, New See also:Mexico, See also:Nevada, See also:Ohio, See also:Oklahoma, See also:Pennsylvania, Utah and See also:Wyoming, for murder only; in See also:Kentucky and Virginia, for treason, murder and rape in See also:Vermont, for treason, murder and arson; in See also:Indiana, for treason, murder, and for arson if death result; in California, for treason, murder and See also:train-wrecking; in North Carolina, for murder, rape, arson and burglary; in See also:Florida, See also:Missouri, South Carolina, See also:Tennessee and See also:Texas, for murder and rape; in See also:Arkansas and See also:Louisiana, for treason, murder, rape, and administering See also:poison or use of dangerous weapons with intent to murder. Louisiana is cited by See also:Girardin (le See also:droit de punir) as a state in which the death penalty was abolished in 1830. Under the influence of the eminent jurist, E. See also:Livingston, who framed the state codes, the legislature certainly passed a See also:resolution against capital punishment. But since as early as 1846 it has been there lawful, subject to a power given to the See also:jury, to bring in a See also:verdict of guilty, " but no capital punishment," which had the effect of imposing a sentence of hard labour for life. In certain states the jury has, under See also:local legislation, the right to See also:award the sentence. The constitutionality of such legislation has been doubted, but has been recognized by the courts of Illinois and Iowa. Sentence of death is executed by hanging, except in seven of the states, where it is carried out by " See also:electrocution " (q.v.). With the mitigation of the law as to punishment, agitation against the theory of capital punishment has lost much of its force. But many See also:European and American writers, and some English writers and associations, See also:advocate the tione See also:total abolition of the death punishment. The ultimate abolition. See also:argument of the opponents of capital punishment is that society has no right to take the life of any one of its members on any ground.

But they also object to capital punishment: (i) on religious grounds, because it may deprive the sinner of his full time for repentance; (2) on medical grounds, because homicide is usually if not always See also:

evidence of See also:mental disease or irresponsibility; (3) on utilitarian grounds, because capital punishment is not really deterrent, and is actually inflicted in so few instances that criminals See also:discount the risks of undergoing it; (4) on legal grounds, i.e. that the sentence being irrevocable and the evidence often circumstantial only, there is See also:great See also:risk of gross injustice in executing a person convicted of murder; (5) on moral grounds, that the punishment does not See also:fit the case nor effect the reformation of the offender. It is to be noted that the English See also:Children Act 1908 expressly forbids the pronouncing or recording the sentence of death against any person under the See also:age of sixteen (s. 103). The punishment is probably retained, partly from ingrained See also:habit, partly from a sense of its appropriateness for certain crimes, but also that the ultima ratio may be available in cases of sufficient gravity to the commonweal. The apparent discrepancy between the number of trials and convictions for murder is not in England any evidence of hostility on the part of juries to capital punishment, which has on the whole lessened rather than increased since the See also:middle of the 19th century. It is rarely if ever necessary in England, though common in America, to question the jurors as to their views on capital punishment. The reasons for the comparatively small number of convictions for murder seem to be: (1) that court and jury in a capital case lean in favorem vitae, and if the offence falls See also:short of the full gravity of murder, conviction for manslaughter only results; (2) that in the See also:absence of a statutory See also:classification of the degrees of murder, the prerogative of mercy is exercised in cases falling short of the highest degree of gravity recognized by lawyers and by public opinion; (3) that where the conviction rests on circumstantial evidence the sentence is not executed unless the circumstantial evidence is conclusive; (4) that charges of See also:infanticide against the mothers of illegitimate children are treated mercifully by judge and jury, and usually terminate in acquittal, or in a conviction of concealment of See also:birth; (5) that many persons tried as murderers are obviously insane; (6) that coroners' juries are somewhat recklessly See also:free in returning inquisitions of murder without any evidence which would See also:warrant the conviction of the person accused. The medical See also:doctrine, and that of See also:Lombroso with respect to criminal See also:atavism and irresponsibility, have probably tended to incline the public mind in favour of capital punishment, and Sir See also:James Stephen and other eminent jurists have even been thereby tempted to advocate the execution of habitual criminals. It certainly seems See also:strange that the community should feel bound carefully to preserve and tend a class of dangerous lunatics, and to give them, as See also:Charles See also:Kingsley says, " the finest See also:air in England and the right to kill two gaolers a See also:week." The whole question of capital punishment in the United Kingdom was considered by a royal See also:commission appointed in 1864, which reported in 1866 (Part. Pap., 1866, 10,438). The commission took the opinions of all the judges of the supreme courts in the United Kingdom and of many other eminent persons, and collected the laws of other countries so far as this was ascertainable. The commissioners differed on the question of the expediency of abolishing or retaining capital punishment, and did not report thereon.

But they recommended: (1) that it should be restricted throughout the United Kingdom to high treason and murder; (2) alteration of the law of homicide so as to classify homicides according to their gravity, and to confine capital punishment to murder in the first degree; (3) modification of the law as to See also:

child murder so as to punish certain cases of infanticide as misdemeanours; (4) authorizing judges to direct sentence of death to be recorded; (5) the abolition—since carried out—of public executions. AUTHORITIES: Beccaria, Dei Delitte e delle Pene (1790) ; Bentham, Rationale of Punishment; Lammasch, Grundris See also:des Strafrechts (See also:Leipzig, 19o2); Olivecrona, De la See also:peine de mort; Mittermaier, Capital Punishment; Report of the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment (Part. Pap., 1866, No. 10,438) ; See also:Oldfield, The Penalty of Death (1901); Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law; See also:Pike, History of Crime; Sir J. F. Stephen, History of Crime in England; S. See also:Walpole, History of England, vol. i. p. 191; vol. iv. p. 74; See also:Andrews' Old Time Punishments; A Century of Law Reform (See also:London, 1901) ; Lecture ii. by Sir H. B. See also:Poland; See also:Howard Association Publications. (W.

F.

End of Article: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

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