Today, in modern law, the death penalty is corporal punishment.

             lives of those punished, instead of temporarily imprisoning them. Although capital punishment is.

             not intended to inflict physical pain, execution is the only corporal punishment still applied to.

             adults. The usual alternative to the death penalty is life-long imprisonment. The media.

             commonly report that the American public overwhelmingly supports the death penalty. More.

             careful analysis of public attitudes, however, reveals that most Americans would oppose the.

             death penalty if convicted murderers were sentenced to life without parole and were required to.

             make some form of financial restitution. "In California, for example, a Field Institute survey.

             showed that in 1990,82 percent approved in principle of the death penalty. But when asked to.

             choose between the death penalty and life imprisonment plus restitution, only a small.

             minority,26 percent, continued to favor executions.

             The earliest historical records contain written evidence of capital punishment. Used from.

             ancient times in most societies, it has been used as punishment for crimes ranging from petty.

             theft to murder. The bible called for the penalty of death for more than thirty different crimes. In.

             England, during the reigns of King Canute and William the Conqueror, the death penalty was not.

             used, although the results of interrogation and torture were often fatal. In the years to follow, the.

             death penalty in the American colonies before the Revolution, was commonly authorized for a.

             wide variety of crimes. Blacks were threatened with death for many crimes that were punished.

             less severely when committed by whites.

             Not until the end of the 18th century were efforts made to abolish the death penalty.

             Quakers led this movement in England and America. Encouraged by the philosopher Jeremy.

             Bentham, England repealed all but a few of its capital statutes during the 19th century. Many.

             states in the United States, led by Michigan in 1847, abolished the death penalty entirely.