The death penalty was also a part of the fourteenth century B.C.'s Hittite Code and the seventh century B.C.'s Draconian Code of Athens, which made death the only punishment for all crimes. Executions were given for such things as not admitting to a crime, marrying a Jew, and treason (Introduction).
In Britain, the number of capital crimes punishable by death continued to increase. In the 1700s, 222 crimes, such as stealing or cutting down a tree were punishable by death. The American death penalty was greatly influenced by Britain. The death penalty was used in the United States by the Incas.
According to the Incas, the worst crimes a person could commit were murder, insulting the Sapa Inca, and saying bad things about the gods. The punishment for these crimes was being thrown off a cliff (Native). The first recorded execution in America was of Captain George Kendall in 1608. He was executed for being a spy for Spain.
Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale endorsed the Divine, Moral and Marital Laws. These laws gave the death penalty to people for minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indians.
Death penalty laws were different throughout the American colonies. In some colonies, things such as “striking ones mother or father, or denying the "true God," were punishable by death” (Introduction).
Before the 1960s, people interpreted the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth amendments as allowing the death penalty. However, in the early 1960s, it was decided that the death penalty was “cruel and unusual” punishment, and unconstitutional under the Eighth amendment.
