Moreover the practice of capital punishments never was
understood by the leading classes as a deterrent or as a protection of
the population against criminal actions . A feodal ruler in the Middle
Ages didn't give a damn about his peasants being robbed and murdered by
outlaws as long as his interests were not touched .
Law and law enforcement was a highly political matter
: keep the low classes low and let the leading class making money ! (This
still sounds familiar !)
In the dark ages of History ( but are we much brighter
now ?) a life was'nt worth very much, and you could get get hanged
for stealing an apple ( if the apple-tree happened to belong to the landord)
!
But this was not the only sentence which could await
you , our ancestors were very selective and each crime entitled you to
a specific way by which you were put to death : in one country
thieves were hanged , witches were burned , in another thieves were burned
and witches were hanged ...
If you look at the long list of different capital punishments , you may believe that our ancestors were very inventive in this matter. But after all , this is the result of a 4.000 years old history of torture . If you just take this century and have a look at the so-civilized United States, you find out that during this historically short period they invented not less than 3 methods of putting someone "legally" to death : the electric chair, the gas chamber and recently the lethal injection !
Quite good score for a country who likes to give good advices to other countries regarding human rights !
In the last 200 years , there was just one new invention in Europe , the guillotine , who made quite a career in many european countries , but is luckily no more in use nowadays ( France was the last country to use it in the 1972 !)
The guillotine will be treated in this article ( as it
is historical now), but not the american based new methods : electrocution,
gas chamber, lethal injection .
( I do not think any country in the world imported one
of these methods, except perhaps the Philippines )
If I were a citizen of the United States of America , I would be ashamed that my country is becoming the leader in legal killings throughout the world . It is in such " good" company together with Arabian and African countries where a human life isn't worth very much .
For instance the only countries besides the U.S. which have executed juveniles (younger than 18 years) since 1987 are Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Iraq, and Iran !
To get more information about the legal killings in "God's Own
Country " ,
visit the Abolition
Now ! Website
