Johann Trnka (died 24 March 1950) was a convicted murderer who was the last person to be
sentenced to death
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 ...
and executed in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
.
Crime
In order to steal radio sets, Johann Trnka posed as a painter in 1946 and thus gained access to the apartments of two elderly women in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, whom he attacked, robbed, and then murdered.
Trnka was charged with these robbery murders. The trial took place under the presidency of Regional Court President Otto Nahrhaft in the Regional Court for Criminal Matters Vienna, the "Grey House".
Trnka was sentenced to death for double murder and was executed via
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 i ...
on 24 March 1950, at the execution site of the "Grey House", in Vienna. The executioner was a cinema assistant who had already been the executioner at executions on the strangulation gallows during the
Ständestaat
The Federal State of Austria ( de-AT, Bundesstaat Österreich; colloquially known as the , "Corporate State") was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the clerical fascist Fat ...
.
Legacy
Trnka's conviction for murder was carried out under
Austrian law of the Second Republic. After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the death penalty had been declared permissible again in Austria in ordinary proceedings for murder, but was again deleted from the civil codes in 1950 and retained only in military law. Trnka's execution was the 31st and last of a person sentenced to death by an Austrian court in the postwar period. On 7 February 1968, the National Council unanimously decided to remove from the Constitution the possibility of creating summary courts or other forms of exceptional jurisdiction. Article 85 of the Federal Constitution has since read, "The death penalty is abolished."
Die Geschichte der Todesstrafe in Österreich
See also
* Capital punishment in Austria
* List of most recent executions by jurisdiction
Capital punishment is retained in law by 55 UN member states or observer states, with 140 having abolished it in law or in practice. The most recent legal executions performed by nations and other entities with criminal law jurisdiction over the ...
References
Bibliography
* Anna Ehrlich: „Vom Ende des Schreckens bis heute – Die Bewältigung der Vergangenheit“, in: ''Hexen, Mörder, Henker – Die Kriminalgeschichte Österreichs vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart''. Wien 2006, S. 229.
* „... wird mit dem Tode bestraft!“, in: ''Öffentliche Sicherheit'' 5–6/10, Forum Justizgeschichte, S. 30 f.
(PDF; 155 kB) Online-Ressource).
External links
„Letzte Hinrichtung heute vor 60 Jahren“, wien.orf.at
* ttps://www.welt.de/geschichte/article176835031/Todesstrafe-in-Oesterreich-Tod-am-Wiener-Wuergegalgen-Was-fuer-eine-Mordsgaudi.html#cs-lazy-picture-placeholder-01c4eedaca.png Photoof the strangulation gallows, which was also used for the execution of Johann Trnka
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trnka, Johann
1950 deaths
20th-century executions by Austria
Austrian people convicted of murder
Robbers