different realities and reactions mon, but be dressed in an old sack. They also should, if possible, walk to their execution. In the letter resulting in the ordinance another motive was the concern of the clergy that considerations relating to this world disturbed the preparations.544 The spiritual preparations for the executions were thus not seen as problems, instead the strengthening of its position was a reason for the ordinance. Soon another decision stressing the spiritual preparation was taken. Visits from all visitors except for the priest preparing the condemned would be prohibited or severely regulated according to a decision by the government in 1743 and in later printed rules for a gaol.545 The murder of a child committed by the soldier Johan Hellbom in Stockholm in 1753 because he was not willing to live was the direct reason for new legislation. The military court, Gardesgeneralkrigsrätten, which tried the case, found the murder so upsetting that they became creative. In their sentence they to one from the start qualified execution, where the right hand of the man was to be cut off before his head and he then was subjected to a practice called ’stegling’546, added two severe amounts of corporal punishment to be administrated on separate days before the execution.547 The government approved the idea and after consulting the law commission on April 24th 1754 issued a Royal letter increasing the penalties for those that out of boredom with their lives committed murder, generally of children, or committed murder in order 544 Svea Hovrätts letter to the King 18 February 1741 in utslagshandlingar 12 December 1741 NJrARAS. The case that probably caused the Royal ordinance is described in Jansson 1994 p 21 sq and in Jansson 1998 p 58 sqq. Maybe the sack as clothing was inspired from the use of sackcloth as clothing for the condemned in Hamburg, Stuart 2023 p 166 sq. 545 Rådsprotokoll i justitieärende 21 July 1743 p 215 sqqNJrARAS, Öfwer-Ståthållare-Embetets Instruction 1803 IIArt. §8. 546 As there is no equivalent in English, I use the Swedish term ’stegling’. The executed man was dismembered after the decapitation and the body parts then displayed at the site of execution on poles headed by wheels. At least since the new Code of 1734 began to be used in 1736, this in reality was the most severe punishment in use. When a woman was executed stegling was replaced with the burning of the body. On the use of and end of these punishments see Bergman 2011a. 547 Gardesgeneralkrigsrätten to the government 25 October 1753 utslagshandlingar Generalauditörsmål 26 October 1753 NJrARAS. Concerning Hellbom see also Hellbom s a. See also Bergman 1996 p 27 note 79. 156
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