CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN OTHER

COUNTRIES

ENGLISH LAW
The history of crime and punishment in
England during the mediaeval period
reveals that infliction of death penalty was
commonly practiced for the elimination of
criminals.
However, with the advance of 19th
century, the public opinion disfavored the
use of capital punishment for offences
other than the heinous crimes. Sir
Samuel Romilly advocated a view that
the use of capital punishment should be
confined only to the cases of intentional
and wilful murder.
The British Royal Commission on
Capital Punishment was appointed in
1949 to examine the problem. As a result
of the findings of this Commission, death
sentence was suspended in England and
Wales for five years from 1965 and was
finally abolished by the end of 1969.
However, the constant rise in the
incidence of crime in recent decades has
necessitated Britain to re-assess its penal
policy regarding death penalty.

Eston Baker v. Queen, 1975 PC 774

Michael de Fraeities v. George
Ramoutar Benny, 1976 PC 239
These two decisions of the Privy Council
emphatically stressed that the award of
death sentence is not violative of human
rights or fundamental rights.

USA
In modern times the sentence of death is
being sparingly used in USA. This,
however, does not mean that capital
punishment is altogether abolished in
United States. The retention of death
penalty is still considered to be morally
and legally just though it may be rarely
carried into practice.
The developing trend in America is to
restrict capital punishment only to the
offence of murder and rape. Another
noticeable change in trend is to make the
process of execution private, painless and
quick as against the old methods of public
execution which were brutal, painful and
time consuming.
At present, the common modes of
inflicting death penalty in United States
are electrocution, hanging, asphyxiation
with lethal gas and shooting. Several
American States have abolished death
punishment with beneficial results.
ITALY
Italian criminologists expressed divergent
views about the utility of capital
punishment. Lombroso supported
application of capital punishment for
habituals and incorrigibles (who cannot be
reformed). In his view, death sentence
served as an effective deterrent for such
offenders. Garofalo opposed capital
punishment on grounds of morality.
At present, death penalty is not given in
Italy.

FRANCE
France has abolished capital punishment
after a considerable debate and discussion
among penologist and law reformers. The
general feeling is that retention of death
sentence is not in keeping with the modern
reformative trend of penology.
The countries which have abolished
capital punishment include –

 Germany
 Austria
 Netherlands
 Denmark
 Some Latin American States, etc.