Steve Helber - AP Quick History The Death Penalty is a inhumane way of punishing people which has existed for centuries. From the 18 Century B.C., the Code of King Hammurabi established the death penalty legally. As time progressed, more governments added the death penalty as a punishment for crimes, such as the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Around the 10th century, Britain started to incorporate executions as punishments for crimes. As Britain started to migrate to the Americas, they influenced the concept of the Death Penalty in the United States. The first person to be a victim of the Death Penalty was in our state, Virginia, in 1608. Virginia, the first state to use capital punishment, also has a higher percentage of prisoners on death-row than any other state. Furthermore, it has executed more people than any other state in the U.S., 113 people si...