Capital punishment in Denmark (Danish: Dødsstraf - literally "Death punishment") has been entirely abolished in peace-time since 1930 and for war crimes since 1978 (or strictly since 1 January 1994). The last peace-time execution was carried out in 1892, but followed by executions during the World War II purges in 1945-50. Reinstitution of capital punishment is not supported by any political party in Parliament. According to an opinion poll from 2006, one fifth of Danes supported capital punishment for certain crimes. The number was unchanged since another poll in 1999.[1]
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For the most part, Denmark followed the style of other European nations, with government-employed executioners, called skarpretter (headsman) in Denmark. The headsman had the status of a Royal government employee.
The last public execution was conducted in 1882 on Lolland, when Anders Nielsen was executed. Jens Nielsen was the last man executed under the penal code. He was executed on 8 November 1892 in the courtyard of the State Prison of Horsens, convicted on three counts of attempted murder. He was beheaded with an axe. Both executions were conducted by Jens Carl Theodor Seistrup, the second-to-last executioner and the last actively to do executions for the Government of Denmark. The last headsman in office was Carl Peter Hermann Christensen who held the position from 27 August 1906 until 1 April 1926, but never performed any executions.
Starting during the first decennia of the 1800s, death penalties were increasingly commuted to life imprisonment by the Crown. After 1892, death sentences were handed down but not carried out. This also applied to the last death sentence which was handed down in a civil court on 13 June 1928.
On 1 January 1933, Denmark abolished all capital punishment under the old penal code, when the new Danish Penal Code[2] automatically came into effect, entirely replacing the older code from 10 February 1866. Under military law, however, capital punishment still remained an option.
After the occupation of Denmark, three special laws were enacted as amendments to the penal code [3], all having the option of capital punishment, related only to war crimes committed during World War II. These were ex post facto laws and were part of the purges (Danish: Retsopgøret) attempting to meet the public opinion that the most severe war criminals be punished by death. These included HIPO and Gestapo officers, many notorious for brutal murders or torture, and certain informers. In contrast to certain other countries which had been occupied by Nazi Germany, simple collaborators or sympathizers with the Germans were generally not sentenced to death.
About 13,500 people were sentenced as collaborators, denouncers or traitors under these laws. Of these, 76 received the death penalty and 46 of them were carried out, the last in June 1950. The 30 remaining were pardoned. The sentences were carried out by firing squads of 10 voluntary police officers, either in Undallslund Plantage (17), close to Viborg or on the military training grounds at Margreteholm, Christianshavn, Copenhagen (29). The latter execution area is today inside Christiania, on the Second Redan of the outer rampart, Enveloppen (in Christiania called Aircondition, Dyssen area) where a concrete floor and drain can still be seen at coordinates .[4][5][6] (See: Freetown Christiania#Barracks and ramparts)
Capital punishment in these laws (not the laws themselves) was eliminated in 1951. However, as capital punishment was still mentioned in the preamble of the law text, a new amendment confirming the removal of the death penalty was approved in Parliament on 22 December 1993, effective from 1 January 1994.[7]
Already during the German occupation, in 1943, the clandestine Danish Freedom Council had issued their thoughts about Denmark's return to democracy after the war. Among their demands was prosecution of war criminals and of those responsible for the violation of Denmark's legal system and independence. They endorsed retroactive legislation but were, however, opposed to the death penalty.[8]
During the last two years of the occupation, Danish resistance fighters were subject to harsh repression, torture and execution by the Germans. The popular sentiment led to wide demands for using the death penalty after the war. Shortly before the liberation, the Freedom Council let a clandestine committee of lawyers elaborate a proposal for a war crimes act, including the death penalty. The Prime Minister appointed another committee, consisting of civil servants and judges. These two proposals were fused to a bill of law. A major point of difference was whether the law would be retroactive to only the 29 August 1943, when the Danish government resigned, or all the way back to 9 April 1940 when the occupation had begun. The resistance movement got its way and the latter was decided.
The penal code appendix bill was treated in Parliament from 26 to 30 May 1945, just three weeks after the liberation on 5 May. 127 members of the Folketing voted for the law, 5 members of the Justice Party abstained because of opposition to the death penalty, and 19 were absent. On 31 May it was confirmed by the Landsting by 67 votes for, 1 against and 8 were absent. Among the opponents were J.K. Jensen of the Radical Liberal Party and Oluf Pedersen of the Justice Party. Pedersen proposed an amendment which would postpone any executions until a referendum had confirmed the new law. Subsequently, he received threats from former resistance fighters.
K.K. Steincke of the Social Democrats, himself a lawyer, expressed the general viewpoint in this way:[9]
If anyone in 1939 had claimed that in six years from then I would be endorsing a bill about the death penalty, even with retroactive force, I would not have regarded him as sane. But since then, barbary and lawlessness have occurred, the normal state of law has been violated deeply, and I feel then more tied to a deeply violated public conscience than to normal conditions. We must deal with these criminals, not of a lust for revenge, but so that we soon may return to normal conditions.
The purge after World War II has been widely debated, partially because small offences were sentenced quicker and generally more severely than processes for greater offences which lasted longer, while moods were cooling down after the end of the war. Another point of critique was the retroactivity of the law. Contrarily, proponents in the 1945 debate argued that if the death penalty was not re-applied, war criminals would be subject to mob justice or lynchings. According to a 1945 opinion poll, about 90 percent of the population were in favour of death penalty for certain war criminals.[10]
The background been documented in depth by historian Ditlev Tamm.[11]
In 1952 Denmark reinstated capital punishment in the penal code for crimes committed with particular malice during war (murder, treason and denunciation, limited to offenders over the age of 21).[12] The terms were similar to those of the 1945 penal code appendix, seeking to avoid the necessity of another law with retroactive force, should Denmark be occupied during the cold war. It was abolished again in 1978.[13] At the same time capital punishment was abolished in military law. No people were ever sentenced under this law.[14][15]
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