From the history of punishment

victim; felons; offender; beheading; adultery; pillory; punishment; condemned; ancient; medieval; guilty; legal; deterrent

For the most history __________ has been both painful and public in order to act as _________ to others. Physical punishments and public humiliations were social events and carried out in most accessible parts of towns, often on market days when the greater part of the population were present. Justice had to be seen to be done.

One of the most bizarre methods of execution was inflicted in ancient Rome on people found ______ of murdering their fathers. Their punishment was to be put in a sack with a rooster, a viper, and a dog, and then drowned along with the three animals. In ________ Greece the custom of allowing a _______ man to end his own life by poison was extended only to full citizens. The philosopher Socrates died in this way. Condemned slaves were beaten to death instead. Stoning was the ancient method of punishment for _________ among other crimes.

In Turkey if a butcher was found guilty of selling bad meat, he was tied to a post with a piece of stinking meat fixed under his nose, or a baker having sold short weight bread could be nailed to his door by his ear.

One of the most common punishments for petty offences was the _________, which stood in the main square of towns. The _________ was locked by hands and head into the device and made to stand sometimes for days, while crowds jeered and pelted the offender with rotten vegetables or worse.

In _______ Europe some methods of execution were deliberately drawn out to inflict maximum suffering. ______ were tied to a heavy wheel and rolled around the streets until they were crushed to death. Others were strangled, very slowly. One of the most terrible punishments was hanging and quartering. The ________ was hanged, beheaded and the body cut into four pieces. It remained a ________ method of punishment in Britain until 1814. __________ was normally reserved for those of high rank. In England ‘block and axe’ was the common method but this was different from France and Germany where the victim kneeled and the head was taken off with a swing of the sword.

1. Complete the following text with the words and expressions from the box.

2. Make a list of execution methods inflicted on criminals throughout the history.

III. Answer the following questions:

1. Why did ancient punishment have to be painful?

2. What was the purpose of making punishments public?

3. What was the symbolic meaning of the punishment inflicted on the parent’s murderers?

4. What punishments were most common in the East?

5. How did punishments reflect social status?

6. Comment upon the statement “Justice had to be seen to be done”.

7. Are some of these methods still in use in the modern world?

IV. Prepare a short report on other methods of execution ever existed in history.

PROJECT WORK

What do you know about the following notorious criminals? Make a presentation about one of them. How were they punished?

Cain

Marcus Junius Brutus

Gaius Longinus Cassius

Guy Fawkes

Alessandro Cagliostro

Jack the Ripper

Mata Hari

Bonnie and Clyde

Alphonse Capone

Lee Harvey Oswald

Write a “for and against essay”: Capital punishment: pros and cons, using the following plan.

1. Introduction – general remarks presenting topic (3-4 sentences).

2. Main body (6-8 sentences):

– arguments against capital punishment providing by strong arguments;

– arguments for capital punishment providing by strong arguments.

3. Conclusion – expressing your own opinion (2-3 sentences).

Reviewing What We Learned

1. What is capital punishment?

2. What ancient methods of execution do you know?

3. Why was capital punishment imposed so frequently in ancient societies?

4. What are modern ways to put a criminal to death?

5. What are the reasons for and against death penalty?

6. How do different countries treat the problem of death penalty today?

7. Prove your point of view on this issue.

Legal Skills in Action

In 1952 two youths in Mitcham, London, decided to rob a diary. They were Christopher Craig, aged 16, and Derek William Bently, 19. During the robbery they were disturbed by Sydney Miles, a policeman. Craig produced a gun and killed the policeman.

At that time Britain still had the death penalty for certain types of murder, including murder during a robbery. Because Craig was under 18, he was sentences to life imprisonment. Bently who had never touched the gun, was over 18. He was hanged in 1953.

The case was quoted by opponents of capital punishment, which was abolished in 1965.

If you had been the judge, would you have given a different sentence?