Death Penalty
The Hessian constitution was written in 1946, and Article 21 permitted the use of the death penalty. But all uses of capital punishment in Germany are forbidden by the 1949 Federal Grundgesetz (basic law), which supersedes all state laws such as the Hessian constitution by the principle of "Bundesrecht bricht Landesrecht" ('Federal law breaks state law').
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Famous quotes containing the words death and/or penalty:
“There is no such thing as an ugly language. Today I hear every language as if it were the only one, and when I hear of one that is dying, it overwhelms me as though it were the death of the earth.”
—Elias Canetti (b. 1905)
“That’s the penalty we have to pay for our acts of foolishness—someone else always suffers for them.”
—Alfred Sutro (1863–1933)