by Silvestre Lacerda, Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra

Portugal was one of the pioneering countries in incorporating in its legal system a law to abolish the death penalty for civil crimes.

On 26 June 1867, as part of the changing of the Penal Code and Prison Reform, the Justice Minister, Augusto César Barjona de Freitas, won the parliamentary vote, with two abstentions and two votes against, to abolish the death penalty, which he described as the “penalty that pays for blood with blood, that kills but does not correct, that avenges but does not improve and, usurping God in the prerogatives of life and closing the door to repentance, extinguishes in the heart of the condemned all hope of redemption, putting the fallibility of human justice up against the darkness of an irreparable punishment.” King Luís sanctioned this Parliamentary Decree with the Charter of Law, published on 1 July 1867. 150th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Portugal (1867-2017) weiterlesen →