People didn’t get horrified about the things we do. Death was all around them. Many of the peasants slept and had sex in the same room as their children. Many of the children were held just as accountable as the adults. Hell, girls were married and had kids at 14+ years old. They were not a sheltered and pampered culture like ours.
Look at just recently- Child Labor? The horrid conditions in factories and mines, punishment in those factories?
Sure, people started to get a conscience back in the late 18th century, but it was still forming, and then it was just that death was wrong, but damn near killing em was still ok. Or working them untill they dropped from exhastion and died from thirst and starvation. :rolleyes:
Doc Paprika, no. No-no-no-no. From the Death Penalty Information Centre:
So the minimum age in the United States is 16. Furthermore, Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977), held that the death penalty was “grossly disproportionate” to the crime of rape of an adult woman, and thus unconstitutional under the 8th amendment. Certainly theft wouldn’t cut it, and I’m fairly certain that since Coker no U.S. jurisdiction has imposed the death sentence for any crime other than murder.