History of Death Penalty

• First established under the rule of King Hammurabi of Babylon in the eighteenth century B.C.

• Popular in the reigns of fourteenth and seventh century where capital punishment was the only punishment awarded to all kind of crimes.

• Example:crucifixion - as how

Jesus Christ was believed to have been put to death, drowning the person in water until death, immolation of the person and impalement by fixing the person against a sharp stake or pierce him to death

Most common practices• Hanging the person to death • administering a lethal injection to

the person electrocution; supplying high volt electric shock to the person (usually performed by making the person seated in the electric chair)

• garroting; • strangulating the person to death

lethal gassing; • suffocating him to death using a

deadly gas firing a person to death using a firing squad making him consume poison,

• live burial by burning alive,• drowning to death, • stoning to death, • guillotine beheading or

decapitation - the practice of slicing his head using a sharp blade.

In the Philippines…

During Spanish colonial rule,

Most common method of executions:

• shooting by the firing squad

• garrotte (a notable case would be the Gomburza.)

• In 1926, the electric chair was introduced by the United States colonial government.

• This made the Philippines the only country besides the United States to employ this method.

1946 to 1986

• The capital crimes after regaining full independence were murder, rape and treason.

• Marcial "Baby" Ama, electrocuted at the age of 16 on October 4, 1961 for murders committed while in prison for lesser charges.

• In total, 51 people were electrocuted up to 1961.

• The electric chair was used until 1976, when execution by firing squad eventually replaced it as the sole method of execution.

• During the Marcos regime, however, countless more people were summarily executed, tortured, or simply disappeared for opposition to his rule

• After Marcos was deposed in 1986, the newly drafted Constitution limited the application of the death penalty to only a few crimes.

• This in practice meant that it was abolished, making the Philippines the first Asian country to do so.

• The first execution by lethal injection took place under, Joseph Estrada in 2001.

• Estrada's own successor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was a vocal opponent and also approved a moratorium, but later permitted executions and denied pardons.

• On 15 April 2006, the sentences of 1,230 death row inmates were commuted to life imprisonment, in what Amnesty International believes to be the "largest ever commutation of death sentences"

• Capital punishment was again suspended via Republic Act No. 9346, which was signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on 24 June 2006.

• The penalties of life imprisonment and reclusion perpetua (indeterminate sentence, 30-year minimum) replaced the death penalty

Pros and Cons of Death Penalty

Morality PRO CON

. Abolitionists may contend that the death penalty is inherently immoral because governments should never take human life, no matter what the provocation. But that is an article of faith, not of fact. The death penalty honors human dignity by treating the defendant as a free moral actor able to control his own destiny for good or for ill; it does not treat him as an animal with no moral sense.“

Bruce Fein, JD Constitutional Lawyer and General Counsel to the Center for Law and Accountability. June 17, 2008

Death sentences are imposed in a criminal justice system that treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent. This is an immoral condition that makes rejecting the death penalty on moral grounds not only defensible but necessary for those who refuse to accept unequal or unjust administration of punishment."

Bryan Stevenson, JD Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. 2004

DeterrencePRO CON

"Common sense, lately bolstered by statistics, tells us that the death penalty will deter murder... People fear nothing more than death. Therefore, nothing will deter a criminal more than the fear of death... life in prison is less feared. Murderers clearly prefer it to execution -- otherwise, they would not try to be sentenced to life in prison instead of death... Therefore, a life sentence must be less deterrent than a death sentence. And we must execute murderers as long as it is merely possible that their execution protects citizens from future murder."

Ernest Van Den Haag, PhD Fordham University

Oct. 17, 1983

"[T]here is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than long terms of imprisonment. States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such laws. And states that have abolished capital punishment show no significant changes in either crime or murder rates. The death penalty has no deterrent effect. Claims that each execution deters a certain number of murders have been thoroughly discredited by social science research."

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Apr. 9, 2007

CBCP official rejects call to revive death penalty

• Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Family and Life said the capital punishment cannot solve the problem of crimes in the country.

• “Death penalty has been proven to be an ineffective deterrent of crime,” he said.

• “The Church believes in restorative justice, that is to say the justice that facilitates healing, restores dignity and not a process that furthers more killing,” added Castro.

• Pabillo said reviving the death penalty could even lead to more injustice, especially for the poor.

The group is not in favor of the death penalty.

• There will always be hope for everyone, a second chance to reflect on the things that they’ve made and learn from their mistakes.

• Only God could judge us, because people are mere human beings that doesn’t have the right to judge other people.

References

• http://www.gluckman.com/Death%27Penalty.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_Philippines

• • http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002000

• http://www.pinoyrepublic.net/cbcp-official-rejects-manila-mayor-estradas-call-to-revive-death-penalty/#sthash.VNJ8NN4b.dpuf