@avatar6v7,
avatar6v7 wrote:You are claiming a statistic which even you know is made up, and I have no idea why you thought it would aid your point.
Avatar,
According to two historical sources regarding Punishments, Proceedings and Crimes at the
Old Baily (London's Central Criminal Court from 17th to the 19th century), one could indeed be hung for steeling a sheep (or even a hankerchief, apparently). There were in place a particularly-brutal set of laws and available punishments therein called "the bloody code". Both sources did; however, qualify their research on these offenses by stating that although extremely harsh punishment had been doled out, that generally sentances for minor infractions were mitigated.
I find very interesting, two things here:
[INDENT]1. I found this information in about 40 seconds of searching the web. I can only conclude that either you felt confident enough that you already knew everything that happened and didn't look, or that it just sounded too absurd to even have been possible (and therefore didn't look).
2. Xris claimed that this sort of law had been in place in 11C; it seems he was not only correct, but that such things were in existence much later.
[/INDENT]The reason I emphasize this error: I believe it's an important point for perspective; that just as surely as there have been absurd uses of capital punishment in the past, so very likely will it be reflected in our future that, "... back in 2009 humanity was uncivilized enough to still use the death pentalty". It's also important to note that
this isn't a condemnation on the Brits at all. From my reading into history, I've found most (all?) nation-states have gone through particularly-brutal times where capital punishment was very liberally applied; some still do.
Hope this helps, Thanks
Sources:
- Punishments at the Old Bailey (Funded by The University of Hertfordshire, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, The University of Sheffield and the New Opportunities Fund).