Capital Punishment
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Capital Punishment. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the taking of life as a penalty for wrongdoing. In England, prior to the American Revolution, 160 offenses were punishable with death. Among these were shoplifting, or stealing in shops to the amount of five shillings, and counterfeiting revenue stamps placed on perfumery and hair powder. Stealing a sheep was visited with the same penalty as killing a man. The main object of punishment being to deter others from committing crimes, the advisability of capital punishment has been questioned; imprisonment for life has been suggested, but few believe that a life sentence is dreaded as much as a death sentence. In England and other civilized countries death is now the penalty for murder and treason only. In the army and navy, offenders may be shot for various military offenses, including desertion and disobedience, and dangerous neglect of duty. President Lincoln interfered, it may be remembered, to save the life of a young sentry who had fallen asleep at the post of duty. Death by torture, such as burning at the stake and breaking on the wheel is no longer permitted by humane governments. Beheading and hanging are the usual methods. Electrocution, or death by a current of electricity, is instantaneous, and has been tried with success. It is prescribed by the laws of some states. Opinion in favor of executions removed from the public gaze is growing. The hour chosen is not infrequently midnight. In the United States the sentence of a court requires to be approved and the date of execution set by the governor. See Martial Law
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in criminal jurisprudence the punishment of death (Lat. at. capitis pœna). This extreme penalty, notwithstanding the practice of the world from the remotest times down to the present day, has frequently been reprobated by philosophers and philanthropists, who have even gone so far as to deny the right so to punish to any earthly power. In the United States, each State has jurisdiction over its own territory, and the laws punishing crime differ in several respects. In many of the States murder is by statute divided into different degrees, differing from each other by the malice and premeditation which accompany the act. Death by hanging, or electrocution, is the usual penalty for murder of the first degree, but in a few States imprisonment for life is substituted for capital punishment. For the various methods of execution, see EXECUTON.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's told readers in 1910 that "death is now the penalty for murder and treason only" and that electrocution "has been tried with success"; Collier's in 1921 still listed hanging or electrocution as the usual penalty for first-degree murder. Both would be startled by what followed: Britain suspended hanging for murder in 1965 and abolished it outright in 1969, having executed its last prisoners in 1964, and France guillotined its last convict in 1977 before abolishing in 1981. In the United States the Supreme Court voided existing death penalty laws in Furman v. Georgia (1972), then permitted their return in Gregg v. Georgia (1976); lethal injection, first used in Texas in 1982, has since displaced both the noose and the electric chair. Aiton's noted a growing preference for executions "removed from the public gaze" — the last public hanging in the United States was at Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1936 — and today well over half the world's countries have abolished capital punishment for all crimes.
Written for this edition, 2026.