Britain influenced Americas use of the closing penalty more than either other country. When European settlers came to the new world, they brought the practice of capital punishment. The world-class recorded execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown small town of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a shit for Spain. In 1612, Virginia Governor Sir doubting Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, which provided the finis penalty for even minor offenses much(prenominal) as thievery grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indians.
Laws regarding the death penalty varied from colony to colony. The Massachusetts Bay Colony held its first execution in 1630, even though the Capital Laws of New England did not go into effect until years later. The New York Colony instituted the Dukes Laws of 1665. Under these laws, offenses such as striking ones mother or father, or denying the true God, were punishable by death. (Randa, 1997)
The abolitionist movement finds its roots in the writings of European theorists Montesquieu, Voltaire and Bentham, and English Quakers John Bellers and John Howard. However, it was Cesare Beccarias 1767 essay, On Crimes and Punishment, that had an especially strong impact throughout the world.
In the essay, Beccaria theorized that thither was no justification for the states taking of a life. The essay gave abolitionists an lordly voice and renewed energy, one result of which was the abolition of the death penalty in Austria and Tuscany. ( Schabas 1997)
American intellectuals as well were influenced by Beccaria. The first attempted reforms of the death penalty in the U.S. occurred when Thomas Jefferson introduced a standard to revise Virginias death penalty laws. The bill proposed that capital punishment be used only for the crimes of maul and treason. It was defeated by only one vote.
In the archaean to mid-Nineteenth Century, the abolitionist movement gained momentum in...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com
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