introduction er.Perhaps such ideas influenced those who murdered a spouse or a child, or a neighbour’s child, and then refused to apply for clemency.21 Even though the question of motive is central to this study, the execution, hoped for and sometimes carried out, was the most set of limits. Things were more blurred than appears at first glance, however. For example, in Vienna in 1812 a man tried a shortcut. He invited the public executioner to his flat. When his guest had arrived, he locked the door, produced a gun, and made a proposal. Either the executioner – paid, naturally – would execute his host or he himself would be shot. The executioner answered that if he wanted to die he had to subject himself to the same treatment as any other criminal, and that meant being bound ready for execution. His host agreed, whereupon the executioner tied his hands and delivered him to the police.22 As he wanted to be executed, this case belongs with the others in this study, but how to judge the cases where someone wanted to be killed, but not by a public executioner? For practical reasons, I have excluded instances of people who wanted to die but were unwilling to commit suicide, and instead persuaded or paid someone to kill them.23 All these uncertainties bring us to an almost impossible question. How important was the execution? Was it simply a fast means to death and eternity? Or was it in itself crucial for the choices of people who seemingly aspired to be executed? Was their longing for death also a longing for the noose, the sword, the axe, or some other method used? One result of these and all other uncertainties is that this study does not contain a specific chapter on the criminals. Beyond the fundamental motive and limited knowledge of the sometime significant higher numbers of a particular gender, age, or occupation, there is not much we can generalise about them. Easier to identify and study than the motives of those seeking or welcoming their own execution, however, are the contemporary interpreta21 See e g statsrådsprotokoll i justitieärende 27 February 1830NJrARAS, högsta domstolens protokoll 2May 1831NJrARAS, statsrådsprotokoll i justitieärende 27 December 1832NJrA RAS. See also Locard 1939 col 414. 22 Osiander 1813 p 97 sq. 23 On such cases see Georget 1825 p 121 sqq. 25
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