Capital punishment in Spain

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Europe holds the greatest concentration of abolitionist states (blue). Map current as of 2022
  Abolished for all offences
  Abolished in practice
  Retains capital punishment

The

1978 Spanish Constitution bans capital punishment in Spain, except for wartime offences. Spain completely abolished capital punishment for all offenses, including in times of war, in October 1995.[1]

The

Strangulation by garotte had been portrayed as a draconian act by the public after its last use in 1974, when Salvador Puig Antich was executed in Barcelona and Heinz Chez [es] in Tarragona.[2]

History

Capital punishment was common in the Spanish kingdom, and methods used included

Mariana de Pineda Muñoz and the assassin of six-time Prime Minister of Spain Antonio Cánovas del Castillo. According to a pamphlet published anonymously by Crown Prince Oscar Bernadotte, Spain was the most frequent executioner of the Western world in the early 1800s, followed by his native Sweden.[3] The penalty was abolished by the Second Spanish Republic
in 1932 but restored two years later in the midst of social and political turmoil for a few major offences, not including murder.

Xeres in 1892 by use of the garrote
.

Francoist Spain

Capital punishment in

President of the Generalitat of Catalonia
.

As Franco's regime was consolidated, use of capital punishment became scarcer; between 1950 and 1959, 58 Spaniards (including 2 women) were executed by garrotte and 9 by firing squad. In the 1960s, the total number of executions dropped to 6; 2 in 1960, 2 in 1963 and 2 in 1966 (less than in neighbouring France, although several of the convictions were considered political). Due to criticism, a 6-year moratorium followed, broken when

Guardia Civil members - with that of a common murderer.[5] The last five death sentences were carried out simultaneously in Madrid, Barcelona and Burgos on 27 September 1975, prompting Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme - amongst other harsh condemnations - to denounce the regime as "devilish murderers" the following day.[6]

The imposition of the death penalty for terrorism followed its own logic during Franco's dictatorship. Sometimes it was not swiftly carried out, such as in the case of Andrés Ruiz Márquez (Coronel Montenegro),[7] a member of a Spanish National Liberation Front (FELN) commando who had set up a string of small bombs in Madrid. He was arrested by the Spanish police in 1964 and condemned to death but saw his sentence commuted to life in prison.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The death penalty in Spain – iberianature – Spanish history and culture". Iberianature.com. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
  2. ^ "Historia de la pena de muerte". Amnistiacatalunya.org. Retrieved 2011-11-08.
  3. ^ Oscar Bernadotte, Om Straff och Straffanstalter (1840), unknown page
  4. ^ "Remembering those executed by Francoist firing squads at Camp de la Bota | Info Barcelona | Barcelona City Council". www.barcelona.cat. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  5. ^ List of persons executed in Spain since 1812: http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/garottel.html
  6. ^ Ahlmark, Per (6 March 2001). "Kolumn/Per Ahlmark: Vilka tyranner var "satans mördare"" [Column/Per Ahlmarks: What tyrants were "devilish murderers"]. Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  7. ^ FIJLE: Boletin de Informacion - El "Caso Montenegro"
  8. ^ Archivo Linz - El terrorista Andrés Ruiz Márquez fue detenido por la policia en la calle de Serrano
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