Capital Punishment Capital punishment is the lawful infliction of the death penalty and since ancient times it has been used to punish a wide variety of offenses. The Bible prescribes death for murder and many other crimes such as kidnapping and witchcraft. In the 1500's in England only the major felonies carried the death penalty. Some of these felonies are treason, murder, larceny, burglary, rape, and arson. In the 1800's however , parilament had enacted many new capital offenses, and hundreds of persons were being sentenced to death each year. In the United States prior to the civil war the death penalty was imposed on slaves for many crimes, but the p