A capital crime as you probably know is an offense that is punishable by death.
The term comes from the Latin word “caput”, which means head, and capital punishment originally
meant literally losing your head.
This controversial kind of punishment is still retained in 58 countries, while 102 countries
have it but don’t use it.
32 countries have abolished it altogether, with another eight countries saving it for
only special crimes – an example would be genocide.
In most countries it’s saved for the most heinous of crimes, such as murder, war crimes,
or crimes against humanity, but if we look at the ever-progressive Saudi Arabia, you
could lose your head over there for adultery, robbery, witchcraft, homosexuality, and according
to the BBC, even repeated drug use- though we guess even just being a journalist will
do it nowadays.
But if you think that’s crazy, well listen to this episode of the Infographics Show,
Capital crimes of the past.
We’ll start with Europe and move on to the USA later.
If we look at the UK, a place where once upon a time you could have your limbs pulled off,
your internal organs ripped out, and any other manner of awful punishments happen to you,
you could say things have vastly improved.
The last time they had an execution in the UK was on 13 August, 1964, and that was the
hanging of two men, Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen, for stealing a few quid from a man
and bludgeoning him to death in the process.
The Guardian writes that there was no public outcry and the event only got a couple of
lines in the British press.
Nonetheless, that was that.
The Labor government wanted the end of capital punishment in the UK and it was abolished
in 1965.
It remained somewhat legal for certain punishments such as treason until 1998, but no one was
hanged during that time frame.
Believe it or not, when England introduced drop-hanging in 1783 it was seen as quite
humanitarian and a move forward in terms of morals.
It was the same in France when it introduced the guillotine for capital crimes in 1792.
The reason for that of course is that it was supposed to be quick and painless, rather
than a long, drawn-out (excuse the pun) torture that ended in death.
It wasn’t until then that hanging replaced burning at the stake as the punishment for
treason in England, while the Scots burned their supposed witches for a while longer.
This was progress!
Times were moving on, and historians tell us that the English were not so frivolous
in their executing.
We are told that during King Henry the VIII’s reign there were ten executions every week
in London.
The writer Steven Pinker writes that people in those days might be executed for as little
as stealing someone’s cabbages.
If we look at the list of UK capital punishments in England as late as 1822, the barbarity
of present day Saudi Arabia comes to mind.
That year saw the very last hanging for shoplifting in the country – how many of you have lifted
candy bar in your lifetime – and execution for witchcraft was no more.
Still, you might find yourself in the gallows after a minutes-long trial with the judge
telling you that you will “be hanged by the neck until dead” for what might seem
today minor offenses.
Of the 222 capital offenses there was cutting down a tree, poaching, robbing a rabbit warren,
begging if you were a soldier or sailor, damaging Westminster Bridge, pick-pocketing, stealing
from a shipwreck, maiming cattle on purpose, being in the company of gypsies for more than
a month, strong evidence of malice in a child aged 7-14, being out at night with a blackened
face, stealing horses or sheep, arson, forgery, fraud, letter stealing, rioting and sacrilege.
We can find only one person who was hanged for the latter from 1723 to 1820.
We should add that the U.S. National Institutes of Health tells us that across England, Wales
and Scotland there were contrasts in how this punishment was applied.
It seems by far the South and South West of England saw the highest rate of hangings.
Property offenses such as burglary ended with thousands of executions in England over a
few decades, but few in Scotland and Wales.
We might also add that of course murder was a capital offense, but that is a given.
Not everyone convicted of a capital offense went to the gallows.
We are told that there was a golden age of what is called “The Bloody Code” and this
was from 1816-1820.
5,583 sentences of death were handed down and yet only 518 people were hanged.
It’s said that many were pardoned, while others joined the army or navy or were sent
to Australia to eke out an existence there.
Thankfully, from 1822 and through to the 1830s many of these capital offenses were removed.
One of the reasons for the change was the introduction of police forces, which were
supposed to help reduce crime rather than the old tactic of just preventing crime by
scaring people with the consequences.
By 1861 there were just four capital offenses, and they were murder, high treason, piracy
with violence and arson in the royal dockyards.
We are not exactly sure, though, what would have happened to you then if you went out
robbing rabbits from warrens with your close gypsy buddies.
We might also remember, in view of what we see as absolutely heinous and despicable today,
is that in England during the 19th century there was still a capital crime of committing
“the detestable and abominable vice of buggery with mankind or beast.”
Yes, that includes mere homosexuality.
The last Brits hanged for this were James Pratt and John Smith.
Their execution was on 27 November, 1835.
The reforms after 1822 weren’t exactly humanitarian across the board.
Our American viewers must now be thinking that those Brits were a brutal lot, but those
living in the new world were not always that far removed from such brutality.
America had its own terrible laws.
While it’s hard to find exactly how many homosexuals were executed in the U.S., even
after its Independence from Great Britain and the creation of new laws, it seems the
country wasn’t all that progressive.
One academic that wrote a paper on this says, “It appears that in 1776 male homosexuals
in the original 13 colonies were universally subject to the death penalty, and that in
earlier times, for a brief period in one colony, lesbians had been liable to the same punishment
for relations with other women.”
We just can’t find any instances of the death penalty being applied for homosexuality
back then.
We do know that Thomas Jefferson thought he was being forward-thinking when in 1779 he
tried to create a law in Virginia which meant men convicted of sodomy would be castrated
rather than executed, but his idea was rejected.
Ok, on to the USA and it’s past capital punishments, but first of all, what are the
present capital offenses as the country hasn’t given up the ghost just yet on killing people
for crimes they committed.
We are told that there are currently 41 such offenses, and you all know the obvious, such
as murder.
The list contains many instances of how such a murder can happen, such as murder at an
airport, or in a drive-by shooting.
But you can add to that list, “Destruction of aircraft, motor vehicles, or related facilities
resulting in death”, “Espionage”, “Death resulting in destruction of government property”,
“Genocide”, “Mailing of injurious articles with intent to kill or resulting in death”,
“Large-scale drug trafficking”, “Treason.”
All of the others just about are related to the willful taking of life.
Even today people may receive the death penalty, but many of those people are not executed.
We are told that since 1976, 7,800 people in the USA have been sentenced to death and
just over 1,400 people have been executed.
As of April, 2018, there are 2,743 people residing on Death Row.
We should add that some states, 20 at time of writing, have abolished the death penalty
altogether.
Back in Colonial Times before America gained its Independence you can of course compare
capital offenses to those of Great Britain.
Historians tell us that you might be sent to the gallows in the 1600s and 1700s in the
U.S. for witchcraft, stealing food, heresy, trading with the local Indians, or when slaves
killed their masters or master’s wives or family, traitorous denial of the king's rights,
kidnapping, perjury in a capital trial, or striking one's mother or father (upon complaint
of both).
Another historian tells us you can add to that horse theft, counterfeiting, adultery,
arson, bestiality, piracy, slave revolt, concealing birth, and burglary.
From 1600 to 1700 the execution rate for crimes other than murder kept dropping, but even
after 1776 (when the U.S. gained it Independence) there were still quite a lot of people being
killed for their crimes when those crimes were not murder.
Not all states were the same.
We are told that some states were much more lenient, but then we found a list of capital
crimes in North Carolina in 1937.
These included many crimes we have already listed, but also: highway robbery, dueling
where death occurs, castration, hiding a slave with intent to free him, bigamy (that’s
marrying while married), circulating seditious literature among slaves, inciting slaves to
rebel, taking a free Negro out of state to sell him, and also the vague crime of causing
mayhem.
Some states were way more progressive, having heeded the writings of European enlightenment
writers of the past.
Things were changing, such as many social critics writing that public hangings should
be ended.
Like in the UK, these live executions drew in large, sometimes rowdy crowds.
Then in 1846, Michigan became the first state to abolish capital punishment.
Wisconsin followed a year later.
There were caveats, though, such as you won’t get executed as long as you don’t perpetrate
treason against the state.
There was a kind of breakthrough in 1972 when the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment
was a cruel and unusual punishment, and for three years it looked like an end to such
punishment.
Of course, things changed.
From the beginning of 2018 to December 5th 2018 a total of twenty two people in the USA
were executed for their crime.
The last one was in Texas and the now dead man’s name was Joseph Christopher Garcia.
He’d escaped from prison in the year 2000 and he was accused of going on a crime spree
after the escape with six of his fellow escapees.
During that spree he was said to have killed a police officer during a robbery on Christmas
Eve.
He denied this, but all men – except one that committed suicide – were handed the
death penalty.
Only two are still alive and awaiting execution.
After hearing all this, what is your take on the death penalty?
Should there still be one, or should it be abolished.
If not abolished, which crimes deserve to be a capital offense?
Tell us in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other show Worst Punishments In The History of Mankind.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.