Capital punishment in the United States
Each of the Thirteen Colonies came up with its own death penalty laws.  For example, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was mostly Puritan, laws were harsh.  Under its first capital punishment laws, which were effective from 1636-1647, people were executed for sodomy, adultery, witchcraft, blasphemy, bestiality, assault, rape, statutory rape, perjury in a capital trial, and murder.  Later, the colony continued to execute people for witchcraft, including 20 people during the Salem Witch Trials.  They also executed people for being Quakers and pirates.