Death Penalty Methods

There are so many sources, which influence Islamic law, but “consequently, sources of law in Islam are based on two texts (the Koran and the Hadith), a declaratory authority (ijma) and a means of interpretation (qisas).” (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2010, p.13) In case of conflict between these sources, there is a procedure to be followed. Prevail material sources or the binding texts (the Quran and Sunnah). Otherwise, an explanation may be required.

A comparative aspect of the work is the existence and application of the death penalty, regardless of whether the deprivation of liberty is more rehabilitative or punitive. We can talk about different varieties of death penalty. The most widely used Western methods are lethal injection, electric shock and hanging. However, other forms such as execution, beheading can be applied when there was treason or murder committed. Nowadays almost all countries have rejected to use death penalty, however it still exists in some US states and some Arabic countries.

Talking about the capital crimes that lead to death penalty, there were officially named eight ones in the 1500s, such as murder, treason, theft, robbery, arson and rape. In accordance with the murder Act of 1752 a person convicted of murder must be hanged within 48 hours. However, this law has finished in 1868. The children and youth act of 1933 stopped the death penalty procedure for those who are under the age of 18.

In 1965, the murder Act abolished the death penalty for all crimes except piracy with violence, arson in the Royal docks and treason. This was confirmed in 1969 after a five-year review of the act. The 1998 law on human rights has incorporated the European Convention on human rights (ECHR) in UK law, banning capital punishment for murder except 'in time of war or of imminent threat of war'. In January 1999, the Minister of the interior, Jack Straw, signed the sixth ECHR Protocol which formally was abolishing the death penalty in peacetime. In December 1999, the second optional Protocol of ICCPR was ratified by the government. This was followed by the ratification of Protocol 13 in 2002, which allowed the total abolition of the death penalty in the UK, including the war period.

Many believe that the death penalty is a violation of the right to life guaranteed by the ECHR and the ICCPR. At the ethical level, opponents of the death penalty argue that the death penalty is nothing more than state-sponsored murder, which is as morally reprehensible as the crime itself.

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