Capital punishment within the story, “Two Fishermen”

(Man going up on the pedestal about to be hung)

The first year Canada introduced capital punishment was in 1865. You could receive the death penalty if convicted of rape, treason or murder. 100 years later in 1966,  Canada changed the rule where you could only recieve the death penalty for killing a police officer or prison guard. The final two death penalties in canada were on 1962 in December. The executions were of two men, one who killed a police officer, and the other man who killed two people who were going to be witnesses in a large drug trafficking trial.  Then in 1976 Canada removed the death penalty and replaced it with a life sentence with no chance of parole.

 

I believe that “Two Fishermen,” would have been taken place after 1868 and because,this is when the death penalty was being used and the execution had to be done inside the jail. We don’t have a direct quote that states it was inside but we can cuncurr that it was becuase Smitty has to come outside to face the people. Also the crime was a murder, so it would be acceptable punishment. I don’t think Delaney should have been have been killed because of the circumstance he was in. He did start the fight with Rhinehart, but the actually murder was part of Delaney’s self defence. Yet with the time period, I believe he should have been killed due to the laws surrounding capital punishment. Also, it was more than murder because he beat him up to a living pulp with his own hands so it would be considered manslaughter which should be dealt with by capital punishment. In this day in age I belive he should not have been killed because there is many other ways to deal with the situation.