Some of you were just born in the wrong era.You would have agreed (or at least think you would) with the policys of a few hundred years ago more than what has changed and become acceptable since.
Dealth penalty never was a very well used penalty ,it always was used discriminatorily determined by class and social position.England which has much longer history with it's use then the US is a great example but came to their senses like most of the world and stopped using it decades ago.The US stands out with still a few states that actually still execute people,primarily southern ones like Texas and Louisiana.Only other countries in the world that still execute are the ones like Iran and some other middle eastern countries and China.Seems odd that some of the same people who talk about how those countries are so awful and backward would support the same policys they have,but maybe they don't see they have much in common with those folks when it comes to being civilized as the western nations would define it.
Here is the history of capital punishment in England and the UK.Want to adopt the bloody code here in the US?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_Kingdom
"Capital punishment was used in the United Kingdom and its predecessor states of England and Scotland from the earliest times until the punishment was abolished in the twentieth century. The last executions, by hanging, took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder (in 1969 in Great Britain and in 1973 in Northern Ireland). Although not applied since, the death penalty remained on the statute book for certain other offences until 1998."
Waltheof II, Earl of Northumbria was the only lord to be formally executed during the reign of William I of England.[1] William Rufus re-introduced hanging but only for those found guilty of poaching royal deer.[2] He too is known to have executed only a single aristocrat, William of Aldrie.[citation needed] Henry I brought hanging back as the main means of execution for many crimes. William Fitz Osbern was the first recorded execution at Tyburn in 1196. The hanging tree, near present-day Marble Arch in Hyde Park, became notorious. Under the reign of Henry VIII some 72,000 people are estimated to have been executed by various methods[citation needed] including boiling, burning at the stake, decapitation and hanging, sometimes with the added punishment of drawing and quartering while still alive.
Sir Samuel Romilly, speaking to the House of Commons on capital punishment in 1810, declared that "…(there is) no country on the face of the earth in which there [have] been so many different offences according to law to be punished with death as in England." Known as the "Bloody Code", at its height the criminal law included some 220 crimes punishable by death, including "being in the company of Gypsies for one month", "strong evidence of malice in a child aged 7–14 years of age" and "blacking the face or using a disguise whilst committing a crime". Many of these offences had been introduced to protect the property of the wealthy classes that emerged during the first half of the 18th century, a notable example being the Black Act of 1723, which created 50 capital offences for various acts of theft and poaching.
Whilst executions for murder, burglary and robbery were common, the death sentences for minor offenders were often not carried out. However, children were commonly executed for such minor crimes as stealing. A sentence of death could be commuted or respited (permanently postponed) for reasons such as benefit of clergy, official pardons, pregnancy of the offender or performance of military or naval duty[3] Between 1770 and 1830, 35,000 death sentences were handed down in England and Wales, but only 7,000 executions were carried out."
