The current trend in the criminal justice system is moving from a due process model to a model of crime control. The crime control model seeks to deter crime by means of allowing police officers more discretion in their actions, giving them fewer legal restrictions on proving guilt in trial, building more prisons, and having much harsher penalties for all levels of crime (Samaha, 2003). This has historically resulted from an anti-crime movement. Traditionally, the members of society who are engulfed in this whirlwind are the minorities and outcasts of our society. However, a society has an obligation to protect its citizens from those who would most heinously breach the "social contract", and the most effective and just way to do this is through the implementation of capital punishment. Throughout history, capital punishment has been among the most longstanding and cross-cultural punitive practices. Capital punishment is also one of the few practices supported in the religious texts of the three largest religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. When arguing for or against the death penalty, one should be apprised of its history, relevant cases, implementation, costs, statistics, processes, and reasons for its application.
Among the predominant punishments given in the first written code of laws, Hammurabi's Code, was the death penalty. For offences such as murder, arson, larceny, and fraud, the punishment was death. The Persians, Macedonians, Greeks, and Romans all used capital punishment, the most common form being crucifixion (www.encyclopedia com/crucifixion). The country with the greatest impact on the American system of capital punishment is England. When settlers came across the Atlantic, they brought British Common Law with them, which allowed for capital punishment for crimes such as treason, heresy, and murder (Grant, 2004). The first recorded execution took place in Jamestown, Virginia in 1608 when George Kendal was executed for treason (Randa, 1997).
