The brief monograph at hand deals with the issue Death Penalty from a legal history standpoint. Here, after some introductory remarks on pre-state societies (hunters and gatherers), the following historic eras are subject matter: The Code of Hammurabi and Sumerian precursors, Germanic Law, the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages.Target groups of this publication particularly are criminal lawyers, legal historians and general historians, self-evidently also students of such academic subjects.