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Historical Death Penalty Research Paper

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The first historical death sentence was in the 16th Century BC in Egypt (Greenberg, 2008). The person was a member of nobility and was accused of using magic. He took his own life and it was classified as his execution. A person that was non-nobility was often times killed with an ax.
The first recorded execution in the English American colonies was in 1608. Officials executed George Kendall of Virginia for supposedly plotting to betray the British to the Spanish. In 1612, Virginia's governor, Sir Thomas Dale, implemented the Divine, Moral, and Martial (Greenberg, 2008). The laws made death the penalty for minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, killing dogs or horses without permission, or trading with Indians. The laws were

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