different realities and reactions ly restrictions had been made on the possibilities of the inmates to earn money for better food and other necessities by working in a craft. The new prison priest had also refused Johanna to go to communion due to her ignorance of Christian faith. She committed her crime in despair, but she did not succeed, instead of death she received corporal punishment. Four years later Spengler and another inmate set a fire in the prison. Her motive for the fire was that she wanted to be free. This time she was sentenced to death and was executed in February 1767. Vera Lind sees Johanna primarily in the light of suicide and the fire as ”einen selbstmörderischen Akt der Verzweiflung”.519 In Denmark we, in non-military law, just as for Sweden, firstly find a Royal ordinance of February 2nd 1749, restricting the ceremonies and clothes worn at the execution. As will be seen for Sweden, it had its background in a murder with a child as victim. The Danish ordinance, however, was more precise and far-reaching as it prescribed for example a bare head, simple clothing, hands tied behind the back, a noose around the neck, and humiliating transport to the execution.520 The restrictions on ceremonies in 1749 raised the question of the role of the priest, should he be present at the execution? The answer given in a Royal letter of February 12th 1751 was that the priest was to be present with the condemned at the site of execution but was not to accompany her to the site, nor be present in the cases when the capital punishment included pausing to be pinched with red-hot pliers on the road. Singing and praying on the road was also forbidden.521 The pinching with red-hot pliers had been introduced in 1697 together with the decapitation accompanied by the severing or the right hand for murder with premeditation when the victim was a person of authority in the household or a spouse.522 In a Royal letter of April 22nd 1768 the rules were stressed and 519 Lind 1999 p 265 sqq. ’a suicidal act of despair’ (quotation p 269). 520 Chronologisk Register 1795 IV:110 sq, Holmboe 1961 p 106, 189 note 46. Although special clothing was forbidden it was worn on at least two occasions, in 1756 and 1805, Krogh 2000p290. 521 Kongelige rescripter 1787 V:1:316. Concerning the pre-history of the letter see Bergman 1996 p 130 and Krogh 2000 p 313. 522 Krogh 2012 p 47. 149
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=