The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes.
Death sentences in the United States peaked in the mid-1990's and have declined significantly since that time. Even in states that use the death penalty most heavily, the number of new death sentences is much lower today than at the peak.
China is the world's most active death penalty country; according to Amnesty International, China executes more people than the rest of the world combined each year.
After its adoption, the device remained France's standard method of judicial execution until abolition of capital punishment in 1981. The last person to be executed in France was Hamida Djandoubi, guillotined on 10 September 1977.
Ronald Ryan was the last man hanged in Australia, 50 years ago on 3 February 1967.
"1786: Hannah Ocuish, age 12". Executed Today.
The first executions carried out under European law in Australia took place in Western Australia in 1629, when Dutch authorities hanged the mutineers of the Batavia. Capital punishment had been part of the legal system of Australia since British settlement.
The History of Capital Punishment in Australia
The last person to be executed in Australia was Ronald Ryan. Ryan was 'hanged by the neck until he was dead' at Pentridge Prison, Victoria in 1967.
George Stinney, Youngest Executed – StoryCorps.
In practice, China traditionally uses the firing squad as its standard method of execution. However, in recent years, China has adopted lethal injection as its sole method of execution, though execution by firing squad can still be administered.
On Monday, 21 January 1793, arguably one of the most significant public executions in history took place – King Louis XVI of France was beheaded by guillotine in the centre of Paris, ending with the drop of the blade over a thousand years of monarchy in France. The executioner was Charles-Henri Sanson.
Hanging is the only common method of execution in 21st-century Iran, usually carried out in prison. Compared to other countries that use hanging (such as Japan or Malaysia) with a complex gallows designed to drop the condemned and break the neck, Iran's gallows are very simple and inexpensive.
The first known federal execution under this authority was conducted by U.S. Marshal Henry Dearborn of Maine on June 25, 1790. He was ordered to execute one Thomas Bird for murder on the high seas.
The predominance of lethal injection as the preferred means of execution in all states in the modern era may have put off any judgment by the Court regarding older methods.
The first recorded execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain.
MORATORIUM ON THE USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY
Australia's opposition to the death penalty is a long-standing, bipartisan policy position. All jurisdictions in Australia abolished the death penalty by 1985. In 2010, the Australian government passed legislation that prohibited the reintroduction of capital punishment.
New South Wales was the last State in Australia to repeal the death sentence for all crimes in 1984. The repeal of capital punishment in Australia was driven by the public opinion, which became increasingly against the idea of sentencing someone to die as a retribution for their crime.
Given the restrictions on the re-introduction of the death penalty in Australia it is highly unlikely that it will ever be brought back, but there is no doubt the debate will continue well into the future.
Shortly after 8 a.m. on 19 February 1951, Jean Lee, an attractive, red-haired, 31-year-old woman was hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison. She had been sedated and was held upright on a chair before being plunged to her death. Jean Lee was the last woman hanged in Australia and the only one to hang this century.
Death penalty in Australia
A total of 66 people were hanged in South Australia and 45 of these hangings took place at Adelaide Gaol. These hangings were undertaken: 7 outside the front door.
"It's like a burning cocktail coursing through your veins," says Lubarsky, referring to potassium chloride. "Once it reaches the heart, it stops the heart, and you do die. But in the process there is a period of just intense and searing pain."
The blunt force from an axe would render you unconscious. A guillotine, however, would not knock you unconscious if the blade was sharp. You would be in immense pain for an average of 40 seconds.