Fusilamiento de Facundo Luna y Carlos Bejarano

Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

was abolished from the legal system in 1907 by Law N° 3238, passed during the government of president

Claudio Williman Claudio Wílliman Gonzalez (born 10 October 1861 in Montevideo – † 9 February 1934 in Montevideo) was a Uruguayan political figure. Background Claudio Wílliman's parents, José Williman and Antonia González, were immigrants from Gali ...

, and later removed from the constitutional system in 1918. The death penalty had been expressly established by Uruguayan Constitution of 1830.

History

Colonial period

Capital punishment was applied since the time of Spanish colonization in the current territory of Uruguay. The usual method of execution was by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

or, for military or political crimes, by

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), 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 ...

. In 1764, shortly after the beginning of his term as Governor of Montevideo, Agustín de la Rosa erected a gallows on the site of the present-day Constitution Square to "strengthen the peacefulness of the population and to frighten restless people". Occasionally, the death penalty was performed by garrote, in particular when the condemned was

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

Constitution of 1830

In the first constitution of the nascent Uruguayan state, the death penalty was explicitly mentioned in articles 26 and 84, which regulate the powers of the Chamber of Representatives and the presidential pardon.

Abolition

The death penalty was abolished by Law N° 3238 of 23 September 1907, during the government of Claudio Williman. Article 1° of the law states: This law was passed after heated debates between abolitionists and anti-abolitionists, with the elimination of capital punishment for military crimes being particularly contentious. The law was unconstitutional at the time of its promulgation, since articles 26 and 84 of the 1830 Constitution, still then in force, explicitly sanctioned the death penalty. However, the Constitution of 1830 did not provide any protocol for the nullification of laws that contravened it. Such a mechanism does exist in the current Constitution. In 1918, the abolition became constitutional when it was included in the new Constitution that came into force that year, which states: All subsequent constitutions have upheld that prohibition. It can be found in the Constitution of 1967 in article 26. Uruguay's last execution was performed in the

Maldonado Department The Maldonado Department ( es, Departamento de Maldonado; ), with an area of and 164,300 inhabitants (2011), is located to the southeast of Uruguay. Its capital is Maldonado. Geography and climate Neighbouring departments are Rocha to the Eas ...

on 29 September 1902.

References

{{South America topic, Capital punishment in

Politics of Uruguay Human rights abuses in Uruguay