Capital punishment
Capital punishment refers to the use of the death penalty as a penalty for certain kinds of offences, such as murder, sodomy and treason (Williams et al., 2014).
History of capital punishment
Notably, during colonial times, nations such as China and America routinely executed thousands of their citizens based on capital punishment. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the largest number of executions took place. However, a broad wave of resistance focused on international laws and human rights has spread across the globe over the past few years, anticipating the imminent demise of the constitution. Notably, by 1986, the use of capital punishment had been discontinued by more than 46 countries. The trend continued, and by 1995, the number of countries had dropped from 1.5% to 4% (Wright, 2014). Many specialists regard this move as dramatic turnaround on the provision of death penalty in capital punishment.
Reasons for abolishing capital punishment
There are some reasons why the nations dropped the use of capital punishment. First, some countries argued that death penalty has no place in the general penal system of civilized and advanced societies. On the other hand, other nations felt that capital punishment violates human rights especially the right to life and dignity. Presently, challenging the subject of the death penalty is not regarded as an internal matter within nations. International Court of Justice in Hague has spelled elaborately different methods to be used to replace capital punishment (Williams et al., 2014). Besides, the provision of procedural rules in various states helped to shape the Supreme Court's oversights role in capital punishment. Therefore, nations such as America are currently committed to pursue human rights and abolish the use of any form of punishment that violates people's rights.
References
Williams, D. J., Bischoff, D., Casey, T., & Burnett, J. (2014). "Mom, They are Going to Kill My Dad!" A Personal Narrative on Capital Punishment From a Convict Criminology Perspective. Critical Criminology, 22(3), 389-401
Wright, T. J. (2014). 'A barbarous penalty which the community has no right to exact': why capital punishment was abolished in Britain. Doctoral dissertation, University of York, 1947-69.
