1 Death Penalty - Summary As the theme of my thesis, I've chosen the death sentence. Such sentence has accompanied the human society from the early times. From the history to these days, it helped to maintain the public order and the law enforcement. The public order was seen differently in each society and every historical stage. However, there was always one thing in common, it intended to protect life, safety, law enforcement and community rules. During the period of economic growth, abundance and prosperity, the society tends to treat law and public order intruders more liberally. The "western part" of civilization is currently at this evolution stage. Our country is firmly integrated into the European Union. There is a straightforward common understanding. The death penalty is prohibited and it has to be respected. The world tends away from the death penalty in general. I've outlined the questions to be addressed at the introduction part of the thesis. I structured the dissertation into ten chapters. Further supplements are attached to the material, including the photographic documentation provided on my own, deeds and other documents related to the topic. I explain the definition of the death sentence and its purpose in the first chapter. I introduce different theories about the purpose of the death...

Bestiality was one of the most severely-punished crimes in 17th and 18th century Sweden. More individuals have been executed for bestiality in Sweden than for witchcraft. The sentence for bestiality was decapitation and being burnt at the stake. Even the animals with which the sodomist had had intercourse were slaughtered and burned publicly at the place of execution. An even greater number of people were sentenced to corporal punishment and forced labour in iron collars for attempting to commit bestiality. Despite the severe penalty the number of trials increased dramatically during the first half of the 18th century, culminating sometime mid-century. Bestiality, together with infanticide, stood out as the most serious of contemporary Swedish social problems. The numerous trials and executions for bestiality seem to have had few if any parallels in contemporary Europe! The purpose of this dissertation is to reconstruct, with the aid of trial records, the various cultural and symbolic significations which acts of bestiality conjured up for the society of the day, as well as to provide an explanation for the increase in the number of trials and its geographic distribution. The first section of this research assignment is inspired by the research traditions which fall under the headings of historical anthropolgy and history of mentalities. The second section is of a more traditional social- historical nature. The conflict and interaction between an elite culture in the service of authority and a folk culture with its roots in traditional customs and ways of thinking comprise a unifying and comprehensive theme in the present dissertation. The source material is composed of judgements and hearing reports from a total of 1,510 trials conducted during the period 1635- 1754, equivalent to the greater percentage of all the trials concerning bestiality dealt with by the district courts in Sweden at that time. By the middle of the 18th century the population living within the area under investigation was something more than one and one-half million souls. The present study shows that the bestiality trials in 17th and 18th century Sweden can be explained neither as the result of a one-sided campaign on behalf of the authorities, nor as a way in which local communities tried to get rid of inconvenient and marginalized individuals. Instead, the numerous denunciations and confessions must be seen as the result of an interaction between the desire of the authorities to exercise control and to legitimize its power, and a popular problemization of the act of bestiality itself. Three areas for problematizing have been pointed out, all of whom contributed to an increased willingness to accuse and confess: the merging of sin and crime within a framework of a justice system featuring public punishment and atonement rituals; transgression of the border between man and beast and conceptions of that which is physically impure; and a traditional job delegation between the sexes and between boys and men which led to different roles in relation to the animals. In a European perspective, the latter was perhaps the most specific to Sweden. / digitalisering@umu

"A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. " ~Franz Kafka This thesis deals with a subject matter which may be considered by some to be undesirable and taboo; that is, the architecture of capital punishment, torture and death. While the content is at times difficult, this book attempts to go beyond initial reactions of support or distaste for the practice of execution. It instead attempts to bring to light the importance of the representation of these events, brought to light by the strength of modern collective thought on the issue, through an architectural discourse. Through space and ritual capital punishment entered into the minds of the people, and through space and ritual the practice can be withdrawn. But should it vanish, or is a continued representation important, and even necessary? My purpose is not to force an opinion, one way or the other, onto anyone. My intention is merely to raise the question in the mind of the reader of this work.

"A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. " ~Franz Kafka This thesis deals with a subject matter which may be considered by some to be undesirable and taboo; that is, the architecture of capital punishment, torture and death. While the content is at times difficult, this book attempts to go beyond initial reactions of support or distaste for the practice of execution. It instead attempts to bring to light the importance of the representation of these events, brought to light by the strength of modern collective thought on the issue, through an architectural discourse. Through space and ritual capital punishment entered into the minds of the people, and through space and ritual the practice can be withdrawn. But should it vanish, or is a continued representation important, and even necessary? My purpose is not to force an opinion, one way or the other, onto anyone. My intention is merely to raise the question in the mind of the reader of this work.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DXN039340.

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The death penalty occupies an essential place in Victor Hugo's work, notably in his narrative work where he emphasizes the rhetoric resources in attempts to convince his reader of the necessity of abolishing this practice which he considers "barbaric". This memoir suggests a reading of this rhetoric, concentrating on various specific Hugolian arguments and suggesting a global vision of his reasoning. The first chapter demonstrates that the opposition between law and his application lies at the root of the judicial criticism according to Hugo, from which also stems the question of death penalty to begin with. We then study the genesis and the functioning of multiple arguments depicting the consistency and persistency of Hugo's reasoning, these arguments being interpreted from novel to novel. Finally, in the third chapter, we analyze history's role as a meta-argument of the abolishment; the historical development often structuring the opposition of Hugo's theory regarding the excessive use of capital punishment.

The last fifty years have seen a turn in the Catholic Church's public attitude toward capital punishment. From openly defending the right of the state to kill malefactors, the Church has become an outspoken opponent. What accounts for this? How can it be reconciled with Catholic tradition? Should the current teaching be called a 'development of doctrine'? Can we expect further change? These questions shape this thesis. The work is divided into three parts comprising a total of eight chapters. Part I undertakes a detailed exegesis of the death penalty teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1997). I conclude that the text, while not explicitly stating that the death penalty is in itself wrong, lays down premises which when carried to their logical conclusions, yield just such a conclusion. This conclusion is checked and confirmed by the fundamental moral reasoning found in the papal encyclicals Evangelium Vitae and Veritatis Splendor. In light of this conclusion (what I call the new position), Part II asks the question: may the Church, constrained by sound biblical interpretation and dogmatic tradition, legitimately teach in a definitive way that capital punishment is per se wrong? This is a question which concerns the development of doctrine. Before it can be answered the Church's traditional teaching needs to be precisely formulated so that it can be placed in juxtaposition to the new teaching. An analysis of statements throughout ecclesiastical history is therefore undertaken and what we might call the cumulative consensus of ecclesiastical writers on capital punishment is formulated. The authoritative nature of this teaching is analyzed to determine what kinds of developments it admits and excludes. Judging its nature admits of a development like the one described in Part I, models are proposed to explain modes by which it might be understood to be developing. Finally, a systematic and philosophically consistent account of the new position is proposed and its implications for other teachings in the Church's tradition of 'justifiable violence' is examined.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-265). Also available on the Internet.