Shrnutí v anglickém jazyce / Resumé in English The purpose of my thesis is to analyse one of the most controversial topic, which people often discuss, the death penalty. To bring an option for a potential reader how to to make his own attitude to the death penalty was the collateral aim. In recent decades the most states abolished death penalty. But there is still over one quarter states in the world, which death penalty aply. Neverthelles public opinion polls show, that public support is relatively significant. The thesis is composed of nine chapters. Chapter one is introductory and defines the purpose of this thesis. Chapter two deals with the punishment and its purpose. This chapter consists of two parts. Part one concentrate on the punishment and defines, what this concept means. Second part concentrate on the purpose of the punishment, on the absolute and relative theory, on the purpose of the death penalty and on the purpose of the punishment in the czech penal code. Chapter three describes the history of the death penalty. The chapter consists of three parts. Part one deals with general history of the death penalty. Part two concentrate on the history of the death penalty in our area. Part three describes the most frequent method of the death pealty. Chapter four concentrates on the arguments of...

The issue of the death penalty is not just a matter of legal and political, but mainly social, ethical and moral. As other questions like abortion, euthanasia and gay adoption of children, this issue forces us to make up our own opinion and take an attitude. In addition, capital punishment is not only historical relic, but there are still lot of states that retained it in their legal system and also a lot of states that can perform it today. And it is not just a totalitarian or authoritarian states, as it might seem, but also a modern democratic society such as Japan or the United States of America. In the second chapter of his work, I focus on issue what is punishment and what kind of punishment and purpose exists. In the third chapter I try to outline the history and present of the death penalty, in the fourth chapter on methods of its execution. In the fifth chapter I introduce arguments of supporters and opponents of the death penalty, in next chapter I focus on public opinion. In the seventh chapter I work with international documents that deal with the death penalty. In the eighth chapter, I try to look at the death penalty from the perspective of Christian faith. The ninth chapter focuses on alternatives to the death penalty and the tenth deals with several well-known cases which have occurred in our...