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Historical Perspectives on the Death Penalty

This quiz examines various historical depictions and facts concerning capital punishment through a series of images and associated contexts. Test your knowledge on this important and often controversial topic.

#death penalty #capital punishment #history #art #legal studies #ethics

1 What does the following picture show?  Giovanni Battista Bugatti, executioner of the Papal States between 1796 and 1865, carried out 516 executions (Bugatti pictured offering snuff to a condemned prisoner). Vatican City abolished its capital punishment statute in 1969.   The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883). Roman Colosseum.   Anarchist Auguste Vaillant guillotined in France in 1894   The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883). Roman Colosseum.

2 What does the following picture show?  The breaking wheel was used during the Middle Ages and was still in use into the 19th century.   Peter Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, by Joseph Hickel, 1769   Mexican execution by firing squad, 1916   Anarchist Auguste Vaillant guillotined in France in 1894

3 What does the following picture show?  The breaking wheel was used during the Middle Ages and was still in use into the 19th century.   Anarchist Auguste Vaillant guillotined in France in 1894   Peter Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, by Joseph Hickel, 1769   Saint Nicholas of Myra seizes the executioner's sword in order to save at the last moment three wrongly condemned prisoners (oil painting by Ilya Repin, 1888, State Russian Museum).

4 What does the following picture show?  The breaking wheel was used during the Middle Ages and was still in use into the 19th century.   The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883). Roman Colosseum.   Peter Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, by Joseph Hickel, 1769   Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union affirms the prohibition on capital punishment in the EU

5 What does the following picture show?  Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union affirms the prohibition on capital punishment in the EU   Peter Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, by Joseph Hickel, 1769   A gurney in the United States on which prisoners rest during an execution by lethal injection.

6 What does the following picture show?  The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883). Roman Colosseum.   Giovanni Battista Bugatti, executioner of the Papal States between 1796 and 1865, carried out 516 executions (Bugatti pictured offering snuff to a condemned prisoner). Vatican City abolished its capital punishment statute in 1969.   Anarchist Auguste Vaillant guillotined in France in 1894

7 What does the following picture show?  Mexican execution by firing squad, 1916   The breaking wheel was used during the Middle Ages and was still in use into the 19th century.   The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883). Roman Colosseum.   Giovanni Battista Bugatti, executioner of the Papal States between 1796 and 1865, carried out 516 executions (Bugatti pictured offering snuff to a condemned prisoner). Vatican City abolished its capital punishment statute in 1969.

8 What does the following picture show?  Anarchist Auguste Vaillant guillotined in France in 1894   Mexican execution by firing squad, 1916   Saint Nicholas of Myra seizes the executioner's sword in order to save at the last moment three wrongly condemned prisoners (oil painting by Ilya Repin, 1888, State Russian Museum).   A gurney in the United States on which prisoners rest during an execution by lethal injection.

9 What does the following picture show?  A gurney in the United States on which prisoners rest during an execution by lethal injection.   The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883). Roman Colosseum.   The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883). Roman Colosseum.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • in the wake of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Stephen A. Mikulak sponsored a bill, later signed into law, that would impose the death penalty for terrorists who kill anyone in New Jersey.
  • the only remaining instance of active use of the death penalty in Europe is in capital punishment in Belarus.
  • in Tennard v. Dretke, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it a cruel and unusual punishment to ignore the defendant's mental retardation in sentencing the death penalty.
  • Herman Ashworth was the fourth person to drop his appeals since the U.S. state of Ohio resumed the death penalty in 1999.
  • Antoni Heda, one of the most successful partisan commanders in Armia Krajowa Polish resistance in World War II, was sentenced to death on 7 consecutive charges by the Polish communists' government.
  • Björn Ferry, winner of the Men's pursuit biathlon event at the 2010 Winter Olympics, has suggested that athletes who use banned substances be given the death penalty.
  • Texas politician Maury Maverick, Jr. killed a bill to sentence convicted communists to death by adding a poison pill amendment to sentence suspected communists to life imprisonment.
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