Criminology

9 Pages 2207 Words

The Code of King Hammauabi of Babylon, the Fourteenth Century B.C.’s Hittite Code, Draconian Code of Athens, and the Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets are past laws which have made the foundation for the death penalty, one of America’s most controversial issues today. Murder has been found to be the top reason why most inmates find themselves on death row now. However dating back to the time of King Hammauabi there have been twenty-five out of the two-hundred and forty-nine known codes where death is the punishment. Through-out the past thousands of years there has been significant revisions done to criminal law and the punishments that fit each crime.
The death penalty as a punishment for murder can be dated further back in time to Biblical times. According to Kerby Anderson, author of the essay Capital Punishment, in Genesis the Bible states that “whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.” Here it is clearly stated that the death penalty for murder was an accepted practice. It is even shown that God felt that certain punishment was deemed necessary for different crimes. “God destroyed two cities because of the heinous sin of the inhabitants.” Anderson also identifies how the Mosaic Law “set forth numerous offenses that were punishable by death. The first was murder.” Anderson also gives a strong argument against Christians who feel that “capital punishment does not apply to the New Testament and church age.” He finds that Romans 13: 1-7 “teaches that human government is ordained by God and that the civil magistrate is the minister of God.” According to Michael H. Reggio author of History of the Death Penalty, “Jews used many different techniques including stoning, hanging, beheading, crucifixion, throwing the criminal from a rock, and sawing asunder,” for various crimes. It took, however, almost three hundred years after the death of Christ before...