Capital punishment in Austria was abolished in 1787, although restored in 1795.
The method of execution in Austria was hanging until the annexation by the Third Reich (1938-1945) when it was replaced by guillotine. After World War II hanging was re-introduced by the British. The last person to be executed in Austria was Johann Trnka. He was hanged on March 24, 1950 for the crime of murder. Capital punishment for murder was abolished on June 30 that year; for all crimes in February 1968. Austria is a state party to the Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR (ratified 1993), Protocol No. 6 to ECHR (1984), and Protocol No. 13 to ECHR (2004).
Famous quotes containing the words capital punishment, capital, punishment and/or austria:
“We make needless ado about capital punishment,—taking lives, when there is no life to take.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Oh, a capital ship for an ocean trip,
Was the Walloping Window Blind;
No gale that blew dismayed her crew
Or troubled the captain’s mind.”
—Charles Edward Carryl (1841–1920)
“Shame is a fitter and generally a more effectual punishment for a child than beating.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)
“All the terrors of the French Republic, which held Austria in awe, were unable to command her diplomacy. But Napoleon sent to Vienna M. de Narbonne, one of the old noblesse, with the morals, manners, and name of that interest, saying, that it was indispensable to send to the old aristocracy of Europe men of the same connection, which, in fact, constitutes a sort of free- masonry. M. de Narbonne, in less than a fortnight, penetrated all the secrets of the imperial cabinet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)