Capital punishment remained in Polish law until September 1, 1998, but from 1989 executions were suspended, the last one taking place one year earlier. No death penalty is envisaged in the current Polish penal law.
According to its first Penal Code, of 1818, executions would be carried out by beheading by the sword or, in exceptional cases, by hanging. The latter was allowed only for male prisoners convicted of heinous crimes. This Penal Code was in force until integration into Russia in 1867.
Since regaining independence in 1918, Polish law allowed the death penalty for murder and treason in time of peace, and a number of other offences during wartime. For example, during the Polish-Soviet War (later to become famous) writer Sergiusz Piasecki was sentenced to death for armed robbery in the war zone, although his sentence was later commuted.
From 1918 to 1928 firing squad was the only method of execution. Through a presidential decree in 1927, hanging became the main method of execution, with firing squad retained for soldiers or people who had committed crimes against state security. Stefan Maciejowski served as the first civil executioner and was a well-known public figure until his firing for alcoholism. Probably the most notable execution by firing squad during the time of the Second Polish Republic was the execution of Eligiusz Niewiadomski, a painter and far right-wing extremist, who assassinated President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz in December 1922.
For a number of years, criminal law in interwar Poland was considered less severe than in Western Europe; this was true for capital punishment as well. When in 1931 a criminal code was passed, the death penalty was incorporated into it by a majority of only a single vote. However, attitudes changed and in 1932 even 17-year-old convicts were allowed to receive the death sentence. [1]
For a brief period during the Second Republic in the 1930s special military courts were introduced in present-day Ukraine. A number of people were hanged based upon decisions by these tribunals for crimes against state security.
Until 1950, the Minister of Interior could order a public execution. There were never such ones in the Second Polish Republic, but after World War II some notable Nazi war criminals were hanged in public. Former Auschwitz concentration camp commandant Rudolf Höss was executed before a large crowd of witnesses in the former camp area. Also former President of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig and gauleiter of Reichsgau Wartheland, SS officer Arthur Greiser was hanged in public in Poznań on July 14, 1946. This was the last public execution in Poland.
During the Stalinist era (1945–1956), the death penalty was a common instrument of political repression. The archetypal method was shooting a single bullet up into the base of the skull from behind; among people executed that way was Witold Pilecki, a hero of Auschwitz. The exact number of people executed until 1956 is unknown, but some sources estimated these numbers as about 3500. [1]
After 1956 (events of Polish October) executions of political prisoners ended, and most executions were related to the crime of murder. The only exception was the case of Stanisław Wawrzecki, who was sentenced to death and hanged for economic crimes under pressure from communist leader Władysław Gomułka. The method authorized for soldiers and people who committed crimes against state security remained the firing squad.
The most recent confirmed execution of a female took place on September 21, 1949. Halina Żurowska , a former Home Army soldier, was executed by a single shot to the back of the head for espionage (almost certainly politically motivated charge) at Rakowiecka Prison in Warsaw. The last execution for an ordinary crime took place on April 7, 1922, when Józefina Paśnik was executed, along with her husband, by firing squad at the Citadel of Warsaw for murder. [2]
From 1969 to 1995 344 people were sentenced to death and 183 were executed (all of sentenced and executed were males). In contrast to other states of the Soviet Bloc, the number of executions in Poland was relatively low. [1]
The last execution took place on April 21, 1988 in Kraków, when murderer and rapist Andrzej Czabański was hanged.
After the collapse of communism in 1989 only a few death sentences were imposed: [3]
1989 – Mariusz Trynkiewicz, sentenced for four counts of murder
1991 – Henryk Więckowski, sentenced for murder.
1992 – Eugeniusz Mazur , sentenced for four counts of murder
1993 – Henryk Moruś, sentenced for seven counts of murder
1994 – Janusz Kulmatycki, sentenced for murder of a police officer and Grzegorz Płociniak; sentenced for double murder
1995 – Tomasz Ciepielewski, sentenced for murder and Zenon Gliwa sentenced for double murder.
1996 – Zbigniew B., sentenced for double murder. Last death sentence in Poland.
None of them were carried out.
Protocol 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which Poland has ratified, restricts the application of the death penalty to times of war or "imminent threat of war". In 2014, Poland ratified Protocol 13 of the Convention, which provides for the total abolition of the death penalty. [4] The penal code of 1997 abolished the death penalty for all crimes; the code passed into Polish law on September 1, 1998. Poland has also ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 25 April 2014. [5]
Today, most political circles are opposed to the idea of reintroducing the death penalty,[ citation needed ] although it has had support from some members of the former (2005–2007) right-wing government, namely former President Lech Kaczyński. He had expressed his desire to reinstate the death penalty, clashing with the European Union over the issue. [6] [7] [8] The national-conservative League of Polish Families (LPR) and the agrarian Self-Defense (Samoobrona RP) also showed some support for the death penalty for a short period of time. Some politicians of the centre-right Citizens' Platform (PO) stated that they would support death penalty if it was legal in the EU.
A 2004 poll, found that 77% supported the death penalty. in 2003 that number was 74% [9]
To support the move, Kaczyński has stated that the death penalty remains popular with most Poles and that abolishing the death penalty gives criminals advantages over victims. A poll by CBOS, a publicly funded Polish research institute, showed that 63% favored reinstating the death penalty. Both the Catholic Church hierarchy, as well as former Presidents Lech Wałęsa and Aleksander Kwaśniewski had expressed their opposition to such a measure. Another poll, in 2007 by Angus Reid Global Monitor, showed that Poles were divided on the issue. 52 per cent of respondents said they opposed the death penalty while 46 per cent said they supported it, with a margin of error at 4.5 per cent. [10]
Currently, the only party in the Sejm that supports bringing back the death penalty is the Confederation. [11]
A 2019 poll found that 45% supported the death penalty. A third of respondent opposed it. [12]
In 2023, Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki said he supported the death penalty. [13] [14] [15]
A 2023, poll found that 48.3% supported the death penalty, 46.3% opposed and 5.4 no answer. It also found that 76% of United Right voters supported it, while 65% of the opposition opposed it. 32% of the opposition supported it. [16]
During the years in which the death penalty existed in Poland, execution by hanging was carried out in eight prisons in the country. Typically, executions would take place around 6.00 p.m., when there were the most prison guards present.
The prisoner was unaware of the fact that the execution was imminent: he was not informed of the date and time when it would take place. Prisoners were only informed at the last moment, as they entered the death chamber. Death chambers were usually located alongside toilets and reportedly many of the condemned may have thought they were taken to wash themselves. A final meeting with their family (or the presence at the execution of a family representative) was not allowed. Families of condemned prisoners were not told in advance of the execution date. They only learned of the execution after it had taken place and their relative was dead.
Any person sentenced to death could write a plea for pardon and submit it to the President or, in the Polish People's Republic, to the Council of State. Even if they did not do that, case files after exhausting all of the possible remedies had to be immediately submitted to the head of state with an attached proposal stating whether the convicted deserved to be pardoned, drawn up by the Public Prosecutor General.
Except for the prison guards, medical team and executioner, the only persons present during the execution were the prosecutor (not the judges) and, if the prisoner wished, a priest and his lawyer.
After having his hands tied the prisoner was escorted to the death chamber. The execution chamber had two rooms – one for final preparations and the second containing the gallows. Then prosecutor read the verdict and informed the condemned prisoner that the President / Council of State did not use the right to pardon and therefore the penalty would be executed.
The prisoner had a right to a last wish – e.g. cigarette, simple last meal or writing a letter to their family.
There were two professional executioners in Poland (both of them members of the prison guard) who received a fee for performing an execution. Their names were kept secret to protect them from reprisals. Both were guards in Warsaw and, if the execution was to be carried out in another place, they travelled to the relevant prison before the execution.
Executions using firing squads were carried out in the military camp in Rembertów. From 1970 to 1988 three soldiers were shot for the crime of murder and rape.
| 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 27 | 7 |
| 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | |
| 10 | 16 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 1 |
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading, is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available and a gunshot to a vital organ, such as the brain or heart, most often will kill relatively quickly.
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty throughout the country at the federal level, in 27 states, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with the other 7, as well as the federal government and military, subject to moratoriums.
In the U.S. state of California, capital punishment is not allowed to be carried out as of March 2019, because executions were halted by an official moratorium ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. Before the moratorium, executions had been frozen by a federal court order since 2006, and the litigation resulting in the court order has been on hold since the promulgation of the moratorium. Thus, there will be a court-ordered moratorium on executions after the termination of Newsom's moratorium if capital punishment remains a legal penalty in California by then.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Utah.
Capital punishment in Canada dates to Canada's earliest history, including its period as first a French then a British colony. From 1867 to the elimination of the death penalty for murder on July 26, 1976, 1,481 people had been sentenced to death, and 710 had been executed. Of those executed, 697 were men and 13 women. The only method used in Canada for capital punishment of civilians after the end of the French regime was hanging. The last execution in Canada was the double hanging of Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin on December 11, 1962, at Toronto's Don Jail. The National Defence Act prescribed the death penalty for certain military offences until 1999, although no military executions had been carried out since 1946.
Capital punishment – the process of sentencing convicted offenders to death for the most serious crimes and carrying out that sentence, as ordered by a legal system – first appeared in New Zealand in a codified form when New Zealand became a British colony in 1840. It was first carried out with a public hanging in Victoria Street, Auckland in 1842, while the last execution occurred in 1957 at Mount Eden Prison, also in Auckland. In total, 85 people have been lawfully executed in New Zealand.
Capital punishment in France is banned by Article 66-1 of the Constitution of the French Republic, voted as a constitutional amendment by the Congress of the French Parliament on 19 February 2007 and simply stating "No one can be sentenced to the death penalty". The death penalty was already declared illegal on 9 October 1981 when President François Mitterrand signed a law prohibiting the judicial system from using it and commuting the sentences of the seven people on death row to life imprisonment. The last execution took place by guillotine, being the main legal method since the French Revolution; Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian citizen convicted of torture and murder on French soil, was put to death in September 1977 in Marseille.
Capital punishment in Denmark was abolished in 1933, with no death sentences having been carried out since 1892, but restored from 1945 to 1950 in order to execute Nazi collaborators. Capital punishment for most instances of war crimes was abolished in 1978. The last execution was carried out in June 1950.
Capital punishment in Sweden was last used in 1910, though it remained a legal sentence for at least some crimes until 1973. It is now outlawed by the Swedish Constitution, which states that capital punishment, corporal punishment, and torture are strictly prohibited. At the time of the abolition of the death penalty in Sweden, the legal method of execution was beheading. It was one of the last states in Europe to abolish the death penalty.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Iran. The list of crimes punishable by death includes murder; rape; child molestation; homosexuality; drug trafficking; armed robbery; kidnapping; terrorism; burglary; incest; fornication; adultery; sodomy; sexual misconduct; prostitution; plotting to overthrow the Islamic government; political dissidence; sabotage; arson; rebellion; apostasy; blasphemy; extortion; counterfeiting; smuggling; recidivist consumption of alcohol; producing or preparing food, drink, cosmetics, or sanitary items that lead to death when consumed or used; producing and publishing pornography; using pornographic materials to solicit sex; capital perjury; recidivist theft; certain military offences ; "waging war against God"; "spreading corruption on Earth"; espionage; and treason. Iran carried out at least 977 executions in 2015, at least 567 executions in 2016, and at least 507 executions in 2017. In 2018 there were at least 249 executions, at least 273 in 2019, at least 246 in 2020, at least 290 in 2021, at least 553 in 2022, at least 834 in 2023, and at least 226 so far in 2024. In 2023, Iran was responsible for 74% of all recorded executions in the world.
Capital punishment is forbidden by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the Czech Republic and is simultaneously prohibited by international legal obligations arising from the Czech Republic's membership of both the Council of Europe and the European Union.
Capital punishment in Finland has been abolished de jure.
Capital punishment in Germany has been abolished for all crimes, and is now explicitly prohibited by the constitution. It was abolished in West Germany in 1949, in the Saarland in 1956, and East Germany in 1987. The last person executed in Germany was the East German Werner Teske, who was executed at Leipzig Prison in 1981.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Russia but is not used due to a moratorium and no death sentences or executions have been carried out since 2 August 1996. Russia has had an implicit moratorium in place since one was established by President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, and explicitly established by the Constitutional Court of Russia in 1999 and reaffirmed in 2009.
Capital punishment in Australia has been abolished in all jurisdictions since 1985. Queensland abolished the death penalty in 1922. Tasmania did the same in 1968. The Commonwealth abolished the death penalty in 1973, with application also in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. Victoria did so in 1975, South Australia in 1976, and Western Australia in 1984. New South Wales abolished the death penalty for murder in 1955, and for all crimes in 1985. In 2010, the Commonwealth Parliament passed legislation prohibiting the re-establishment of capital punishment by any state or territory. Australian law prohibits the extradition or deportation of a prisoner to another jurisdiction if they could be sentenced to death for any crime.
Capital punishment is a long unused form of punishment in Brazil. The last recorded instance of a death penalty convict being executed in the country was in 1876. Although virtually abolished, it is still legal during wartime, according to the Article 5, XLVII, "a", of the Federal Constitution. Brazil is the most populous country in the world that does not retain the death penalty in practice. It is also one of seven countries to have abolished capital punishment for ordinary crimes only.
Andrzej Czabański was a Polish murderer, and the last person executed in Poland before capital punishment was abolished in the nation.
Capital punishment was abolished in Turkey in 2004, and no prisoners have been executed since October 1984. Before that, over 500 convicts sentenced to death were executed. The method of execution was hanging.
Capital punishment in South Africa was abolished on 6 June 1995 by the ruling of the Constitutional Court in the case of S v Makwanyane, following a five-year and four-month moratorium that had been in effect since February 1990.
Capital punishment in Thailand is a legal penalty, and the country is, as of 2021, one of 54 nations to retain capital punishment both in legislation and in practice. Of the 10 ASEAN nations, only Cambodia and the Philippines have outlawed it, though Laos and Brunei have not conducted executions for decades.