After reading a Hartford Courant article about Dr. William Petit’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee on the death penalty, I got to wondering about the history of capital punishment. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes as early as the Eighteenth Century B.C. At that time, crucifixions, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement were favored methods of implementing the death penalty.

In 1608, Captain George Kendall was executed in the Jamestown colony of Virginia for being a spy for Spain. That was the first recorded execution in the new colonies. Four years later, in 1612, the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws were enacted by Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale. Under those laws, a person could be sentenced to the death penalty for such minor offenses as stealing grapes.

On December 26, 1862, during the Dakota War of 1862, the simultaneous hanging of 38 Dakota people convicted of murder and rape was the largest single execution in United States history.

The death penalty was suspended in the United States from 1972 through 1976 primarily as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia. The court found the imposition of the death penalty in a consolidated group of cases to be unconstitutional, on the grounds of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth amendment to the United States Constitution.

The moratorium on capital punishment ended when on January 17, 1977, Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah. His famous last words were, “Let’s do it.” Later that year, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution. On December 7, 1982, Charles Brooks became the first person executed by lethal injection in Texas.

The fate of capital punishment in Connecticut is now before the Judiciary Committee. There are strong and passionate arguments on both sides of this controversial issue. It’s anybody’s guess how this will turn out.