Capital punishment

For other uses, see Capital punishment

(disambiguation) and Letter case § Case styles.

"Death penalty", "Death sentence", and "Execution"

redirect here. For other uses, see Death penalty
(disambiguation), Death sentence (disambiguation),
and Execution (disambiguation).

Capital punishment, also known as the death

penalty, is a government-sanctioned practice
whereby a person is killed by the state as a
punishment for a crime. The sentence that
someone be punished in such a manner is
referred to as a death sentence, whereas the
act of carrying out the sentence is known as
an execution. Crimes that are punishable by
death are known as capital crimes, capital
offences or capital felonies, and they
commonly include serious offences such as
murder, mass murder, aggravated cases of
rape, child rape, child sexual abuse, terrorism,
treason, espionage, offences against the
State, such as attempting to overthrow
government, piracy, aircraft hijacking, drug
trafficking and drug dealing, war crimes,
crimes against humanity and genocide, and in
some cases, the most serious acts of
recidivism, aggravated robbery, and
kidnapping, but may include a wide range of
offences depending on a country.
Etymologically, the term capital (lit. "of the
head", derived via the Latin capitalis from
caput, "head") in this context alluded to
execution by beheading.[1]

Fifty-six countries retain capital punishment,

106 countries have completely abolished it de
jure for all crimes, eight have abolished it for
ordinary crimes (while maintaining it for
special circumstances such as war crimes),
and 28 are abolitionist in practice.[2]

Capital punishment is a matter of active

controversy in several countries and states,
and positions can vary within a single political
ideology or cultural region. In the European
Union, Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental
Rights of the European Union prohibits the use
of capital punishment.[3] The Council of
Europe, which has 47 member states, has
sought to abolish the use of the death penalty
by its members absolutely, through Protocol 13
of the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, this only affects those member
states which have signed and ratified it, and
they do not include Armenia, Russia, and
Azerbaijan.

The United Nations General Assembly has

adopted, in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and
2014,[4] non-binding resolutions calling for a
global moratorium on executions, with a view
to eventual abolition.[5] Although most nations
have abolished capital punishment, over 60%
of the world's population live in countries
where the death penalty is retained, such as
China, India, the United States, Indonesia,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Iran, among all mostly Islamic
countries, as is maintained in Japan, South
Korea, Taiwan, and Sri Lanka.[6][7][8][9][10]
China is believed to execute more people than
all other countries combined.[11]

History

Modern-day public opinion

Movements towards non-

painful execution

Abolition of capital
punishment

Contemporary use

Capital crime

Controversy and debate

Religious views

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Last edited 5 days ago by Xezbeth

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