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Definition: Capital Punishment from Encyclopedia of Capital Punishment in the United States

Capital punishment refers to the infliction of death as the legal punishment for a crime. It is the most severe form of punishment inflicted under Anglo-American jurisprudence. Under the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment, the method of inflicting capital punishment and the crimes so punishable are restricted.

See also Crimes Not Involving Death; Death-Eligible Offenses


Death Penalty

From Encyclopedia of Law and Society
Death is the ultimate penal sanction, which has made it controversial worldwide. Consequently, social scientists have long gravitated to it as a subject for policy-relevant, empirical research. In most nations, however, moral concerns have since World War II led to the death penalty’s abolition as cruel and inhuman, which has mooted empirical research. As late as 1998, there were 1,625 official executions in 37 countries, 83 percent of which occurred in the People’s Republic of China (1,067), the Democratic Republic of Congo (100), the United States (68), Iran (66), and Egypt (48). By 2003, 111 countries had abolished capital punishment. The European Court of Human Rights banned the death penalty in all nations within the Council of Europe, stating it violated the European Convention of Human Rights. The Council has thus indirectly persuaded countries in central Europe that have not already joined the Council to abolish this punishment. Other nations, such as the United Kingdom, have…
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Full text Article Death Penalty

From World of Criminal Justice, Gale
The death penalty has become one of the most controversial issues worldwide in the area of criminal justice. More than half the world’s nations have banned the use of the death penalty or no longer apply it, even through the death penalty may remain legal. While the death penalty is not banned under…
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Full text Article death penalty

From Collins Dictionary of Law
punishment by way of killing the offender. The various modes through time and space have been hanging (Anglo-American), guillotine (France) and electrocution and lethal injection ( USA ). It is extremely popular with the public and the families of victims, but, because it is so easy to make a…
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Full text Article DEATH PENALTY

From Dictionary of Prisons and Punishment
Otherwise known as capital punishment, the death penalty was abolished in the UK in 1965 and replaced with the mandatory life sentence. Although still relatively common in some parts of the world, the only Western democracy to retain the death penalty is the USA. The USA is the capital of capital…
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Modes of Capital Punishment Incapacitation Deterrence Retribution Symbolism Alternatives The Moral Basis of Abolition Conclusion…
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Despite the fact that litigation has challenged the use of tests in employment selection and promotion and educational settings when the result was on overall pattern of discrimination, the courts have not scrutinized the death penalty in the same fashion. In McCleskey v. Kemp (1987), social science…
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Full text Article Capital Punishment

From World of Criminal Justice, Gale
Rounded door open is entrance to execution...
Capital punishment, commonly known as the death penalty , is the lawful infliction of death as a punishment. In the United States, a sizeable majority of states employ capital punishment. A sentence of death may be carried out by through lethal injection, electrocution, hanging, gas chamber, and…
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Full text Article capital punishment

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Punishing a criminal offence by death. Usual methods of execution include hanging, electrocution, lethal injection, lethal gas or firing squad. The death penalty has been abolished in many Western countries. In the USA, capital punishment was effectively in abeyance during the 1970s after several…
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Full text Article Capital Punishment

From Global Social Issues: An Encyclopedia
Chinese police present a group of convicted...
“Capital punishment,” also known as the death penalty, is the state's authorization to kill a person as a punishment for an offense. It takes place according to authorized or judicial procedures, distinguishing capital punishment from various forms of extrajudicial executions, including lynching. …
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Full text Article capital punishment

From Encyclopedia of American Government and Civics
When a citizen is found guilty of a capital...
Capital punishment, often referred to as the death penalty , is the execution of someone as a punishment for a crime (sometimes referred to as a capital crime or capital offense) where the state judges and convicts someone and the state puts that person to death. Few industrial nations allow the…
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© KEITH MCINTYRE/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
The “Old...
Capital punishment is the imposition of death as a criminal sanction. The United States is one of the few nations that punishes some crimes by death and the only constitutional democracy that does so. The Federal Criminal Code imposes capital punishment for treason and some murders, as do the…
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