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
last executions
were carried out on September 27, 1975 when five members of
ETA
and
Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic Front
(FRAP) were executed by
firing squad
for
murder
following a much-publicised trial in which a number of the convicted (including a pregnant woman) were given clemency by General
Francisco Franco
, and the sentences of the remaining five, due to the unavailability of executioners versed in the use of the
garrote
, were carried out by shooting.
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
[
edit
]
Capital punishment was common in the Spanish kingdom, and methods used included
decapitation
(especially for nobility). In 1820
Ferdinand VII
replaced all other methods with the garrote, which was used mainly since then, including for the
liberal
freedom fighter
Mariana de Pineda Munoz
and the assassin of six-time
Prime Minister of Spain
Antonio Canovas 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.
Francoist Spain
[
edit
]
Capital punishment in
Francoist Spain
was restored fully on decree in 1938. From 1940 to 1975, 165 judicial executions are reported to have been carried out, although precise numbers from the years following the
Spanish Civil War
are vague. By one estimate, at least 1 706 executions by firing squad were reported only in Barcelona until 1952.
[4]
Among the most relevant executed from this period there is
Lluis Companys
,
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
Pedro Martinez Exposito
was shot in 1972 for homicide and robbery. The next executions, of Salvador Puig Antich and Heinz Chez in 1974, were allegedly held on the same day to deliberately confuse public sentiments and equalise the execution of a political opponent - both were convicted of killing
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
Andres Ruiz Marquez
(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
[
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]
References
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]
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