EN
The paper presents the attitude of society towards capital punishment during dizerent historical periods and describes the development of philosophical and moral thought regarding the death penalty. It outlines the history of capital punishment in Poland based on various legal norms set out in penal codes of the time. ese are used to investigate the types of crime that carry the death penalty and their number which changed over the years due to signicantly dizerent penal codes applicable in dizerent years. e paper also discusses basic legal acts on the right to life. It presents countries that retain capital punishment, countries that have abolished it and countries where the death penalty is permitted only under military law.