Tahvo Putkonen (30 October 1795 in

Suonenjoki Suonenjoki (; literally means "vein's river") is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Northern Savonia region, southwest of the Kuopio city. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The pop ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

– 8 July 1825 in

Pieksämäki Pieksämäki () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia region, about north of Mikkeli, east of Jyväskylä and south of Kuopio. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. Th ...

) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

farmhand, who killed

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...

Lasse Hirvonen on 26 December 1822 during the Finnish grand duchy period in

. He was sentenced to death on 30 July 1823. He made numerous appeals all the way to the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

, but was each time denied pardon. On 8 July 1825 Putkonen was

beheaded Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the ...

, and his execution is believed to be the last example of

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 ...

during peacetime.

Background

According to preserved court and church documents from the National Archives, the killing took place on Boxing Day, 1822 when Putkonen was celebrating his

name day In Christianity, a name day is a tradition in many countries of Europe and the Americas, among other parts of Christendom. It consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's baptismal name, which is normatively that of a ...

in the village of Jauhomäki, Pieksämäki at his landlord's house. He had invited neighbors over, and was serving food and

hard liquor Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard l ...

to the guests. Putkonen was drunk, and had apparently been so earlier over the Christmas holidays as well.

Murder

Mr. Lasse Hirvonen, a father of five, had joined Putkonen's party. At some point, apparently angered by Hirvonen's dining manners, Putkonen unexpectedly attacked Hirvonen and shoved him on the floor. Other guests separated Putkonen and pushed him out of the house. There, Putkonen tried to grab an

axe An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has ma ...

, but Hirvonen's

brother-in-law A sibling-in-law is the spouse of one's sibling, or the sibling of one's spouse, or the person who is married to the sibling of one's spouse.Cambridge Dictionaries Online.Family: non-blood relations. More commonly, a sibling-in-law is referre ...

managed to tame him. After some time Putkonen was let back into the house. He was still angered, and after noticing Hirvonen, he fetched a meter-long piece of

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...

firewood from outside. Hirvonen was lighting up his pipe at the time of the attack, so he didn't see Putkonen hitting him to the forehead with the log. Unconscious, Hirvonen collapsed on the floor, blood flowing from his ears and nose. He never woke up, and died two days later.

Trial

At first Putkonen admitted his guilt, trying to even offer money in reparation at the scene of the events. Two witnesses testified that they didn't see the actual attack, but heard a noise and saw Hirvonen falling, with Putkonen holding the piece of log in his hand. Putkonen tried to claim later that he had acted in self-defense and that other guests had attacked Hirvonen as well.

Verdict and execution

Tahvo Putkonen was sentenced to death. Additionally, he was fined 24 silver thalers for contempt of court, public intoxication and disturbing the holiday peace. Despite appeals to the Court of Appeals and challenging the witnesses, he was executed with an axe on 8 July 1825, over two and half years after his crime. Although Putkonen was the last person to receive capital punishment, there was such a long period from the crime and his sentencing to the execution, that he is not the last known person to be ''sentenced'' to death during peacetime, nor to commit a peacetime crime that led to a death penalty.

Abraham Kaipainen Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews ...

is the last known person to commit a peacetime crime that led to a death penalty (murdering his brother on 31 July 1823 in Pieksämäki) and to be sentenced to death by a non-martial court (27 November 1823). Kaipainen was executed on 30 October 1824.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Putkonen, Tahvo Tahvonpoika 1795 births 1825 deaths People from Suonenjoki People executed for murder Executed Finnish people Finnish people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by Finland People executed by Finland by decapitation 19th-century Finnish people 19th-century executions by Finland