Capital punishment, church and state in Sweden between the 1700’s and the 1900’s This thesis is a study of change in ecclesiastical praxis and theological argument concerning the death penalty in Sweden seen as a part of general change in the social climate. The thesis’ basic problemconcerns the altered opinion on capital punishment and on the condemned, as reflected in ecclesiastical action and theological argument. Here, church and theology cannot be considered separate fromsociety in general where the fundamental facts behind the successful changes emanated and had their centre of gravity. Swedish development, events and occurrences are to be seen in an international perspective. In part one the theological argument’s role in debate is considered as well as legislation and the application of the lawconcerning capital punishment. During the reign of Gustaf III (1771-92) an effort was made to changecriminal legislation at the Parliament of 1778—79, this was to include infanticide. The transformation which took place in Sweden with the revolution of 1809 affected even the penal systemand reached its culmination in the Penal Laws of 1864. Under these laws, imprisonment became the chief punishment, corporal punishment abolished and various, often qualified capital punishment changed to a, now, very rare death sentence.' Since The Estate of the Peasants had, during the Parliament of 1862—63 tried to abolish capital punishment, abolishment came to be a serious possibility, often seen as only a matter of time, and executions were few. Although the majority of death sentences were followed by a pardon, every execution emphasised the question as to what had hindered a pardon in this particular case and also if execution was justified. Several bills concerning the abolition of capital punishment had direct connection withcertain executions. It was not until 1921 however that capital punishment, in times of peace, came to be abolished. From1877 all executions were to take place behind prison walls and the last was performed in 1910. For the first and only time a guillotine was used. During the period described fewer debaters came to use theological arguments for or against capital punishment. The weight of the arguments became less also. After The Four Estates’ Parliament was abolished (1866) many of the ' Qualified capital punishment: Torture, mutilation etc. Tr.
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