Capital punishment in Themiclesia: Difference between revisions

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==History==
==History==
Capital punishment has been practiced as a punishment for those committing for a wide range of offences and those who are related to said perpetrators.
Capital punishment has been practiced as a punishment for those committing for a wide range of offences and those who are related to said perpetrators.
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="2"| Crime !! 4th century !! 6th century !! 18th century
|-
| Treason || 謀反 || Dismemberment || Dismemberment || Strangulation
|-
| Lese-majeste causing damage || 不敬 || Strangulation || Strangulation || Strangulation
|-
| Counterfeiting royal seal || 寫公之璽 || Dismemberment || Dismemberment || Strangulation
|-
| Counterfeiting baronial seal || 寫徹侯若倫侯璽 || Dismemberment || Dismemberment || Strangulation
|-
| Counterfeiting official seal || 寫公璽 || Strangulation || Enslavement with hard labour || Enslavement with hard labour
|-
| Counterfeiting clerk seal || 寫小官印 || Enslavement with hard labour || Enslavement with light labour || Enslavement with light labour
|-
| Murder || 賊殺人 || Strangulation || Strangulation || Strangulation
|-
| Manslaughter || 誤殺人 || Ransom for strangulation || Ransom for strangulation || Imprisonment
|-
| Conspiracy to murder || 謀賊殺人 || Strangulation || Enslavement with hard labour || Enslavement with hard labour
|-
| Mayhem || 賊傷人 || Strangulation || Enslavement with hard labour || Enslavement with hard labour
|-
| Conspiracy to mayhem || 謀賊傷人 || Strangulation || Enslavement with light labour || Imprisonment
|-
| Battery || 毆人 || Amercement || Enslavement with light labour || Imprisonment
|-
| Banditry || 群盜 || Dismemberment || Strangulation || Strangulation
|-
| Robbery || 劫人財 || Strangulation || Enslavement with hard labour || Enslavement with hard labour
|-
| Abduction and sale as slave || 略人若賣人為臣妾 || Strangulation || Strangulation || Strangulation
|-
| Rape || 強與人奸 || Strangulation || Strangulation || Enslavement with hard labour
|-
| Sex with minor || 和奸童子 || Strangulation || Strangulation || Enslavement with hard labour
|-
| Sabotaging an army on expedition || 灋軍興 || Dismemberment || Strangulation || Enslavement with hard labour
|-
| Inciting mutiny || 灋陳不鬥 || Strangulation || Strangulation || Strangulation
|-
| Desertion || 私去署 || Enslavement with hard labour || Strangulation || Imprisonment
|-
| Aggrandization of the enemy || 譽適以恐眾 || Strangulation || Strangulation || Imprisonment
|}


===Origins of capital punishment===
===Origins of capital punishment===
It is unclear if Themiclesian societies practiced capital punishment as such prior to the [[Hexarchy]].  Received histories do not ascribe a judicial apparatus to prehexarchal government, which appeared in the states in the 2nd century BCE.  The traditional tool of execution, the axe, was used in a ritualistic context to kill sacrificial victims, especially humans, but there is otherwise no obvious connection to earlier practices. There is no judicial record in the oracles, and bronzes only record [[Oathtaking in Themiclesia|oaths]] that invoke divine and physical punishment for stipulated misbehaviourFor capital crimes as understood by later jurists, oaths generally appoint fines, corporal punishment, or exile, but these were breaches of commitments by one individual to another, rather than laws imposed on a general public.
It is unclear if Themiclesian societies knew capital punishment as a judicial measure prior to the [[Themiclesian Antiquity#Classical Period|Classical Period]].  Only a few excavated and received texts describe judicial procedures in the Archaic Period (from 385 BCE to 100 CE). There is no judicial record in the oracles, and bronzes record [[Oathtaking in Themiclesia|oaths]] that invoke divine and physical punishment for misbehaviour. The stipulated penalties are never carried out as recorded, as it would instead be an instance of shame rather than honour for the commissioner of the inscriptionWhat does appear are records of litigations by victorious parties, often quoting the judgment and the authority that made it for record; however, none of these records involve capital punishment—virtually belong to land and service disputes, i.e. economic litigation.


In [[Tsjinh]], it appears traitors were usually exiled.  In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, violence against a person was regarded as an offence to his clan, which is entitled to redress from the perpetrator's clan; the agreed penalty could be compensation or, in rare cases of specific demand, retribution by mutilation or death. This retribution need not occur to the specific offender: a bronze promises that one clan will kill four slaves in lieu of one of its members' accidental killing of a member of the agrieved clan.
For later capital crimes, oaths generally appoint fines, corporal punishment, or exile, but these were self-stipulated penalties for breaches of commitments by one individual to another, rather than laws imposed on a general public by an authority. In modern terms, these were contract provisions, rather than public laws.


The first uncontested reference to capital punishment in Tsjinh appears in 101 CE, immediately after Patriarch the Wise (r. 71 – 105) annexed several colonies and settlments held by extinct aristocratic housesA long edict commanded newly-appointed magistrates to judge colonial residents only according to "former decisions" of his ancestors and to impose only sanctioned punishments—mutilation, slavery, and death.  He also commanded that punishments must be carried out in a public place, so as to quell doubt as to how malfeasors were disposed of, which was frequently a source of dispute when vengenace between families was common.
In [[Sin]] and [[Tsins|Tsinh]], it appears traitors were usually exiled after their lands were confiscated.  In the 4th through 2nd centuries BCE, violence against persons was resolved privately, by either retribution or the taking of compensation, with or without the intervention of an authorityThis retribution need not occur to the specific offender and was negotiated, often with the participation with an authoritative figure, after the offence had occurred. The role of the authority varies—in some cases the figure acted as judge, in others the authority was more of an advocate or apologist, and in still others it merely provided a locale or occasion for the negotiation. This custom of negotiation for compensation may reflect an absence of injury legislation.


In the 4th century, royal authority expanded and created the relatively stable territory that is today known as the [[Demesne (Themiclesia)|Demesne]], where there is a unitary public authority and a widely-applied legal code.  The Code of King K.r′ang (康王彝) was promulgated in 318 and replaced some customary laws with codified ones; capital punishment was imposed for crimes that principally endangered royal rule, but it was also stipulated for crimes such as murder.  The Code permitted certain forms of vengeance, e.g. if a slave killed or injured one owned by another person, the other owner is permitted to kill a similar slave belonging to the owner of the first (but not necessarily the one that killed) or take him as compensation.  
Nevertheless, capital punishment was carried out for sacral offences. It seems, for sacral affairs, early Themiclesians had laws in place that sanctioned actions that might invite the displeasure of supernatural powers. This was the position of Grat, writing in the mid-1800s, that penal law in Themiclesia was an evolution of sacral law. He argued, inter alia, that since virtually all kinds of offence (even treason) could be resolved by paying compensation, the imposition of punishment beyond compensation must originate where paying compensation was impossible or insufficient. Grat's theory is heavily modified in view of advancing knowledge of Archaic jurisprudence but remains a mainstream view of the origin of punishment (including capital punishment) in Themiclesia.
 
Grat's theory has been supported by the observation that all the early methods of execution—burning alive, burying alive, drowning, evisceration, exsanguination, etc.—were identical to sacrificial actions once the arcane terms that describe them were understood. This would seem to reflect an ancient belief that capital punishment was illicit ''in se'', and only through the imitation of sacral actions could they be legitimized; indeed, there was an enduring stigma around executions being a source of pollution. However, as Jeremy notes, there is a significant leap from human sacrifice to capital punishment in that the victims of the latter were not consecrated to anything, and the process of consecration of the victim was important. Jeremy says that "upon current knowledge, it remains difficult to see an equation of capital punishment to sacrifice." A possible synthesis of these two ideas is the "desacralization theory", where sacral actions were increasingly appropriated for mundane and even pollute uses.
 
The first uncontested reference to capital punishment in Tsinh appears in 122 CE, immediately after Prince ’An (r. 71 – 105) annexed several colonies and settlments held by extinct aristocratic houses.  An edict commanded newly-appointed magistrates to judge colonial residents only according to "former decisions" of his ancestors and to impose only sanctioned punishments—caning, slavery, and mutilation.  He also commanded that punishments must be carried out in a public place, so as to quell doubt as to how malfeasors were disposed of, which was frequently a source of dispute when vengenace between families was common.
 
===4th century law codes===
The 2017 excavation at Pri-rem site 30 has yielded an almost-complete copy of laws which most scholars believe was enforced by a royal official in the locality. Amongst its provisions it says, "If the city's priestly household has no children in training and there are condemned prisoners who ought to be executed, can the condemned criminals be sent to the priest instead? Formerly it is said that if the priest was not in cloister and there were [at least] two other priests, this can be done; if the priest was cloistered or if there were not two other priests, it cannot be done. Now, according to the sovereign's command, this is changed. Summon [instead] a child in training from a neighbouring city's priestly household. By this I mean priesthoods of the land, not the commissioner's household's training priest" (邑祝室亡覺子 又死罪噟叏 其至祝不 舊曰居齋外並又它祝二者可 齋中眔亡它祝二不也 今以公令革咸 尚召于鄰邑祝室覺子 又令家祝子非 惟土).
 
From other law codes it can be gleamed that priests were a hereditary profession, and a priest's son entered training at the age of 11 and graduated at 17. Thus, it may be presumed that criminals were executed by such training priests, probably as part of their training to butcher sacrificial animals correctly in various ceremonies.
 
The same excavated material also goes towards explaining a rather cryptic passage in the [[Antiquities of Themiclesia]], which recounts the fallout between the king and queen in consequence of the revolt of the Baron of Qryim in 414. The queen had a sister who married a cousin of Qryim, but as the cousin had aided in the revolt by sending troops, the king's justices (in reality under the control of the Duke of Mer as his chief minister) had to order his execution. The queen, however, took the justices' decision without consulting her as a personal insult, arrested the justice, and imprisoned him at her palace. The king was asked by the Duke of Mer to approach the queen to release the justices, and this he did, saying that if Qryim was not killed, he could not face the other nobles who died in battle, on both sides of the conflict.
 
The queen rejected the king's reasoning and kept the justice in custody for at least four months. However, in 415, she ordered her retainers to take the entire household of the Left Priest and burn them alive on a bridge. Afterwards, she released the justices and told the king she burned the priest to ward off the evil spirits in the city. Ministers congratulated the king on being restored to the queen. The king said to the queen, "The little priest is worth nothing to me." In view of the emergent information, it seems most likely now that Qryim had been executed by a training priest under the Left Priest, and the queen therefore burned his entire family alive in her anger. The story is perhaps quite revealing of priests' rapidly declining social position, being blamed easily for anything that caused royal displeasure.
 
===Codification===
In the 3rd century, royal authority expanded and created the relatively stable territory that is today known as the [[Demesne (Themiclesia)|Demesne]], where the crown became a universal public authority and enforced a widely-applied legal code.  The Code of Kr′ang (康彝) was promulgated in 338, replacing an earlier law code whose contents are completely lost, and repealed some customary laws with codified ones.  The character of the code of 338 is transitional: it binds the royal authority to take certain actions when specific conditions were met and rejects the possibility that the prince's judges might give unexpected rulings and sentences, which were impediments to royal litigation. 
 
By the 4th or 5th century, it appears that most offences became the purview of the royal justice system.  There are a number of methods of execution specified in the code of 338, including some which are not found in later codes:
*An ordinary method of execution noted only as "in public", whose specifics are debated; this uncertain method, ironically, was standard and associated with most crimes.
*Evisceration (磔)—violating religious fasts by sexual intercourse, some violent crimes.
*Bisection (要斬)—some religious offences, some violent crimes.
*Beating (笞殺)—reserved for libels against one's liege lord or the crown.
*Hanging (縣)—done at the city gate, reserved for {{wp|bigamy}}, in the specific case where a male becomes married to two women by the rite of invitation.
*Drowning (滎殺)—spreading diseases or an uncertain type of magic.
*Burying alive (瘞殺)—some religious offences.
*Burning (燎)—some religious offences.
 
Regarding the normal method of execution noted as "in public", there has been two competing theories regarding its exact form.  The older theory is that it corresponded with strangulation, which was also noted as "in public" in later centuries; however, it is also widely understood that strangulation was originally a means of assisted suicide, done by someone with the assent of the deceaser. Additionally, this "in public" method of execution was associated with a large basin being placed in front of the prisoner as the execution happened, and strangulation would produce nothing for the basin to catch. In defence of the strangulation theory, some authors said that the basin contained water and was a mirror for the prisoner to look at themself.
 
A newer theory connects this method of execution to a very common sacrifice, done by cutting the throat of the (human or animal) victim. Depicted in artwork and as described in ritual formulae, a basin was used to catch the blood of the victim as it was needed for another part of the ceremony. This form would rationalize the basin, and additionally it jives with the idea that methods of execution were originally forms of sacrifice. However, this theory is also challenged by those who point out that the "in public" method of execution was used for political crimes, tried by the royal state, which is a newer category of crime in the historical context of the 4th century. If so, it seems difficult to understand why this very common sacrificial form was not employed for older, more established categories of crime.
 
Historians have commented that there was some uncertainty on the part of the legislator which type of execution should be imposed for newly-identified crimes, which were increasingly of a mundane nature rather than specific religious offences. In later law codes, it was recognized that no matter which execution method was used, the result for the prisoner was the same, but this was evidently not yet the case for the 338 law code. As in earlier centuries, it was possible to commute one form of death to another form of death as they were perceived as distinct punishments.


===Remittance and reimposition===
===Remittance and reimposition===
The extent of capital punishment was first reduced when the [[Meng-Rjang Dynasty|Meng dynasty was restored in Themiclesia]], under Emperor Ngjon, who wanted to appear magnanimous to those who opposed him and to appeal to the populace, which was doubtful of his rule. Though unable or unwilling to reform the penal code with hundreds of capital crimes, he did insist on clothing the condemned.  However, later in the dynasty heavy taxation and frequent expropriation encouraged revolts, which were dealt with harshly; this resulted in an expansion of capital offences.
A policy to ameliorate the severity of the law in general was announced when the [[Meng-Rjang Dynasty|Meng dynasty was restored in Themiclesia]], under [[Emperor Wŏn of Chŏllo|Emperor Wŏn]], who found it necessary to establish his mystique to an alien nation whose throne he had just been put on.  He gave an edict in 552:
{{quote|又死罪,免刑,會赦,勿複刑。又罪當焚、磔、砣、塋、笞殺,自今以來勿複焚、磔、砣、塋、笞殺,其棄罪者市。
Those that have been condemned to death shall be spared mutilations; if a pardon [for the death sentence] be issued, mutilations shall not be applied retroactively to them. Those that have been condemned to be burned, disemboweled, dismembered, buried alive, or beaten to death shall, from this day, not be burned, disemboweled, dismembered, buried alive, or beaten to death, and instead they shall be executed [in the ordinary way].}}


Under the [[Dzi dynasty]] (752 – 1185), capital punishment was prohibited for minors under 7, the elderly over 80, and the disabled, in observance of {{wp|Confucianism|Confucian}} ethics and the development of a "caring state" that responded to its people's feelings.  The number of capital crimes also decreased, and the practice of capital punishment by association was limited to sedition and the perpetrator's immediate family after 818. Methods of execution were limited to decapitation and strangulation in the same year, with bisection and dismemberment deprecated.  The final development occurred in the 18th century, when Casaterran concepts of humanism reached Themiclesia.  The ancient prerogative of suicide, originally for the aristocracy, was extended to commoners.
At roughly the same time, Wŏn commissioned a compilation of a formal penal code, by which most scholars think he meant to gain more influence over the judicial functions of government; to assuage courtiers that his intentions were not to meddle with Themiclesia's customary laws, he cultivated the image of a merciful ruler who wanted to revise laws for abolishing penalties that were unnecessary or overly severe. He also insisted on clothing the condemned, which implies that the prisoners were stripped of their clothes at some point prior to being executedWhile it is not known whether his PR campaign had any effect, his chief justice reported to him that
{{quote|孟天子德眔罪人,主事寮臣皆屯首去。
The grace of the Son of Heaven touches even criminals, and the slaves charged depart [in gratitude] bowing their heads to the ground.}}


===End of public executions===
However, later in the dynasty heavy taxation and frequent expropriation encouraged revolts, which were dealt with harshly; this resulted in an expansion of capital offences.
In 1580, the prime minister Lord of Go-ljang was implicated in a scandal where his 12-year-old son imitated a public execution to strangle another child.  Due to the unpopularity of Go-ljang, the incident was propagated as an example of the corruptive influence of his government.  While Go-ljang could claim privilege for his son and avoid trial, he forced his son to commit suicide in a futile effort to appease public emotionsGo-ljang then outlawed public executions in the capital city [[Kien-k'ang]] to the same endIn the decades following, many counties moved execution grounds to remote areas or into prisons instead.  By 1700, public executions occurred only for cases attracting public attention and was soon considered distasteful amongst the political classes.
 
Under the [[Dzi dynasty]] (752 – 1185), capital punishment was prohibited for minors under 7, the elderly over 80, and the disabled, in observance of {{wp|Confucianism|Confucian}} ethics and the development of a "caring state" that responded to its people's feelings.  The number of capital crimes also decreased, and the practice of capital punishment by association was limited to sedition and the perpetrator's immediate family after 818.  Methods of execution were limited to decapitation and strangulation in the same year, with bisection and dismemberment deprecated.
 
===Suspension of public executions===
In 1580, the Baron of Gwa-lang was implicated in a scandal where his 12-year-old son imitated a public execution to strangle a slave-child.  As this event was reported by sources hostile to Gwa-lang, it is unclear if the comparison to a public execution has any substance.
 
Due to Gwa-lang's unpopularity, the incident was propagated by his vocal opponents as proof of his immoralizing influence.  While Gwa-lang could have asked (and almost certainly, obtained) a pardon for his son on account of minority, he forced his son to slit his own throat. But instead of clearing his reputation, he was now understood as a man both immoral and guilty of the grave sin of heir-killingHe then suspended public executions in the capital city [[Kien-k'ang]].  However, the bar on public executions was reversed in 1582.


===Accompanying punishments===
===Accompanying punishments===
If an individual was sentenced to death, then his household was subject to forfeiture (孥, ''na''), whereupon his spouse and children became public slaves (隸臣妾, ''rjebh-gjên-ts′jap'') and his property confiscated.  This is comparable to the medieval notion of {{wp|felony}} in Casasterran judicial systems.  According to some authorities, forfeiture was a more effective deterrent than capital punishment itself, since seized individuals and their offspring were not released.  The government sometimes granted amnesties to prevent slave populations from growing beyond control, but this was not a regular occurrence.  Public slaves were a considerable economic resource used for construction and manufacture, to the extent that some historians describe a "criminal economy" in Themiclesian history.  Initially, public slaves could be sold by the state and were treated as chattel; after the Slave Rebellion of 382, they acquired retained certain rights and liberties.  Forfeiture was abolished in 1508.
If an individual was sentenced to death, then his household was subject to forfeiture (孥, ''mna''), whereupon his spouse and children became slaves (隸臣妾, ''reps-gin-stsap'') and his movables confiscated.  This is comparable to the notion of {{wp|felony}} in Casasterran judicial systems.   
 
According to some authorities, forfeiture was a more effective deterrent than capital punishment itself, since forfeitted individuals and their offspring were not released.  The government sometimes granted amnesties to prevent slave populations from growing beyond control, but this was not a regular occurrence.  Public slaves were a considerable economic resource used for construction and manufacture, to the extent that some historians describe a "palace slave economy", created by the commutation of death to slavery and the pressuring of judges to try for conviction.  Initially, public slaves could be sold by the state and were effectively chattel; afterwards, they acquired retained certain rights, even to marry, own private property, and to qualify for manumission under some circumstances.   
 
Forfeiture of dependents was abolished and reimposed several times in history, and finally abolished in 1635. By contrast, forfeiture of chattels remained in effect until 1859.


===Abolition===
===Abolition===
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While traditional jurisprudence viewed humans as rational actors, it argued that the state should be proactive in imposing costs and rewards to prohibit or compel actions it requires.  The existence of crime was attributed to a lack of disincentive or poor enforcement.  Reformists challenged this school of thought on several fronts, amongst them the very central idea that punishments were imposed for utilitarian reasons.  They also forwarded the idea that, even though laws do no change, the number of criminals does, which suggests that the cause of crime was not related to the severity of punishments and punishment was not an omnipotent device by which any crime can be discouraged to the rational mind.   
While traditional jurisprudence viewed humans as rational actors, it argued that the state should be proactive in imposing costs and rewards to prohibit or compel actions it requires.  The existence of crime was attributed to a lack of disincentive or poor enforcement.  Reformists challenged this school of thought on several fronts, amongst them the very central idea that punishments were imposed for utilitarian reasons.  They also forwarded the idea that, even though laws do no change, the number of criminals does, which suggests that the cause of crime was not related to the severity of punishments and punishment was not an omnipotent device by which any crime can be discouraged to the rational mind.   


Much of the judicature was against abolition of capital punishment and advised the court not to adopt these opinions that grew in popularity.  The Tribunes took abolitionism to be a fad that would naturally abate in the 1830s.  However, the opinion of the judicature changed when Casaterran travellers published accounts of executions in Themiclesia.  One documented a public execution, describing the "sanguine and horrifying affair" that "the city's burgesses would not approach."  The document focused not only on the victim's unpleasant deaths and their demeanour near it, but also described stresses caused to the executioner, who was "reduced by the rigours of his duties to a dumb wreck."  Conversely, the magistrates and Royal Counsels were "satiated by the discharge of their judgments".  The [[Prime Minister of Themiclesia|Prime Minister]] [[Lord of Ran]] became concerned executions reflected negatively on the government and judicature.   
Much of the judicature was against abolition of capital punishment and advised the court not to adopt these opinions that grew in popularity.  The Tribunes took abolitionism to be a fad that would naturally abate in the 1830s.  However, the opinion of the judicature changed when Casaterran travellers published accounts of executions in Themiclesia.  One documented a public execution, describing the "sanguine and horrifying affair" that "the city's burgesses would not approach."  The document focused not only on the victim's unpleasant deaths and their demeanour near it, but also described stresses caused to the executioner, who was "reduced by the rigours of his duties to a dumb wreck."  Conversely, the magistrates and Royal Counsels were "satiated by the discharge of their judgments".   
 
The [[Prime Minister of Themiclesia|Prime Minister]] [[Lord of Ran]] became concerned executions reflected negatively on the government and judicature and the potential for dissent if an execution turned out to be wrongfulTo this effect he argued for the commutation of capital punishment for a large variety of crimes, except murder.


In 1853, the [[Lord of Rjai-lang|Rjai-ljang]] Government reformed the Penal Code, replacing capital punishment with penal servitude, which was argued as a way for criminals to make amends to the state.  This form of servitude was for life and was considered as harsh as capital punishment, and records show that many were worked to death, on public projects dredging canals, building roads, and mending defensive works.  Parliament permitted leases on such labourers to private projects.  While many argued that capital punishment should be restored, penal labour replaced many local services that peers were expected to perform at their own expense, so they were largely in favour of retention.
In 1853, the [[Lord of Rjai-lang|Rjai-ljang]] Government abolished capital punishment in favour of perpetual servitude (隸臣 in the case of males; 隸妾 in the case of females), which was argued as a way for criminals to make amends to the state.  This form of servitude was for life and was considered equally harsh as capital punishment, and records show that many were worked to death, on public projects dredging canals, building roads, and mending defensive works.  Parliament permitted leases on such labourers to private entrepreneurs, who did not need to compensate them for injuries and death.  These labourers were responsible for a considerable part of Themiclesia's early railways.  While many argued that capital punishment might be restored, this labour replaced many local services that members of the gentry were expected to perform as well as those that employers paid for, so they were largely in favour of abolition.  


In 1895, the Liberals argued that penal servitude resembled slavery and was prejudicial to national reputation and so advocated for its abolition.  In 1912, penal servitude as a separate form of punishment was replaced with imprisonment with hard labour.  While penal slaves could be required to perform hazardous and painful work, hard labour in prison was more constrained and, in some cases, voluntary.  Better regulations also existed to protect the health and prospect for resocialization, which were not extended to penal slaves.
In 1895, the Liberal Party argued that penal servitude resembled chattel slavery and was inimical to national reputation and so advocated for its abolition.  Thus in 1899, penal servitude as a separate form of punishment was replaced with imprisonment with hard labour.  While penal slaves could be required to perform hazardous and painful work, hard labour in prison was more constrained and, in some cases, voluntary.  Better regulations also existed to protect the health and prospect for resocialization, which were not extended to penal slaves.


In the armed forces, the situation was less transparent.  The militias were not subject to military law except when active beyond their home prefectures, and the reform of the Penal Code is understood to prohibit capital punishment in that context.  However, in one case case in the [[South Army]], a murderer was still caned to death in 1854.  Naval law away from shore permitted captains and the [[Tribune (Themiclesia)#Naval Tribunes|Naval Tribune]] to throw "dangerous and violent" men overboard in an emergency, but in 1856 captains were directed to order marines to control offenders first, before that action could be taken.  The actual number of those thrown overboard is hard to estimate, since the navy recorded such deaths as "missing".  There is at least one marine thrown overboard for the that reason.  In other cases, capital punishment was replaced by penal servitude.
In the armed forces, the situation was less transparent.  The militias were not subject to special military law except in battle, and the reform of the Penal Code is understood to prohibit capital punishment in all contexts.  However, in one case case in the [[South Army]], a murderer was still caned to death in 1854.  Naval law away from shore permitted captains and the [[Tribune (Themiclesia)#Naval Tribunes|Naval Tribune]] to throw "dangerous and violent" men overboard in an emergency, but in 1870 captains were directed to order his crew and marines to control offenders first, before throwing them overboard.  The actual number of those thrown overboard is hard to estimate, since the [[Themiclesian Navy|Navy]] recorded such deaths as "missing".


==Procedures==
==Procedures==
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===Martial law===
===Martial law===
While there was no specialized military law code until fairly recently, specific offences were only applicable to military officials and soldiers in specific positions.  Early Themiclesia had no standing military, and it seems militiamen in their home prefectures breaking ordinary laws were tried by the prefecture's marshal and punished as civilians.  When units were sent across prefectural borders, the court usually appointed a general to oversee their actions, who tried and punished them likewise.  Cowardice (懦, ''sno'') was punished by penal servitude for militiamen, but a cowardly petty officer would suffer death, since his cowardice impaired his entire unit.  Prefectural marshals and generals were at the 2,000 bushel rank and could pass capital sentences in their own right, though generals' commissions usually contained more specific provisions regarding their judicial powers.
While there was no specialized military law code until fairly recently, specific offences were only applicable to military officials and soldiers in specific positions.  Early Themiclesia had no standing military, and it seems militiamen in their home prefectures breaking laws were tried by the province's justice and punished in the same manner as though they were not in service.  When units were sent across borders, the court usually appointed a general or another court official to oversee their actions, who tried and punished them likewise.  Provincial justices and generals were at the required rank to pass capital sentences by themselves, without further authority from above.


In many cases generals were not required to submit their capital sentences for review before execution; however, certain checks still existed to prevent abuse.  Whenever a general was appointed, a [[Tribune (Themiclesia)#Tribunes of invigilation (military)|tribune]] (監御史, ''k.ram-ngjah-srje′'') was ordered to follow and monitor the general.  The tribune was invariably a highly-trained jurist. While this was done most likely to prevent treacherous negotiations with the enemy, the tribune's purview extended over all of the general's actions. While tribunes may not prevent the general from taking decisions, they could report them after the fact; such reports were taken quite seriously by the court, and even victorious generals may be executed if found grossly violating laws.  Additionally, a general's commission included a staff, one of which department focused on judicial affairs.  Generals relied on jurists in this office to inform his decisions, if they were later contested by the tribune.
The law of obstruction of the forces (灋旬興, ''paps-kwir-heng'') was introduced when the [[Mrangh]] dynasty was established in Themiclesia. It imposed capital punishment for any individual whatsoever who intentionally obstructed the timely and lawful operation of military forces; the wording of the statute was vague, which rendered it dangerous. Counter to this law was the equally general offence of corruption of the law (亂灋, ''rwar-paps''), which punished any official who perversely interpretated the law to arrogate authority by death.


The Themiclesian navies possessed distinct rules relating to capital punishmentSave in battle, killing on board was prohibited, as it was deemed a curseTo lift it, crew members ironically killed prisoners of war and painted their sails with human blood, which was supposed to appease the restive spirits; this practice was recorded by astounded travellers in the 6th century as a barbaric nautical traditionLater, other ceremonies were substituted.  Maritime law permitted ship captains to throw individuals overboard if they were dangerous and violentAfter the military navy was founded, this authority was retained above judicial powers the captain held over his crewSince captains were not sufficiently senior to pass capital sentences, they relied this ancient power to rid the ship of troublemakers.  Without a prison, this in the early navy was frequent.  In the 10th century, [[Tribune (Themiclesia)#Naval Tribunes|naval tribunes]] were appointed to give additional oversight in the fleet, in much the same way over generals.
In many cases generals were not required to submit their capital sentences for review before execution; however, certain checks still existed to prevent abuseWhenever a general was appointed, a [[Tribune (Themiclesia)#Tribunes of invigilation (military)|commisisoner]] (監御史, ''kram-ngha-sreq'') followed and monitored the general.  The commissioner was invariably a trained juristWhile this was done most likely to prevent serious misgovernment, the tribune's purview extended over all of the general's decisions, including judicial onesWhile tribunes may not prevent the general from taking decisions, they could report them after the fact; such reports were taken seriously by the court, and even victorious generals have been executed if found guiltyTo counter the watchful commissioner, a normal general's staff included a judicial departmentGenerals relied their own jurists to inform his decisions and to submit briefs to the crown in his defence, if his decisions were contested by the tribune.


In the [[Colonial Army (Themiclesia)|Colonial Army]], the generalship and staff offices were made standing components.
The Themiclesian navies possessed distinct rules relating to capital punishment.  Save in battle, killing (both humans and animals) on board was prohibited, as it was deemed a cursing act.  To lift it, crews sacrificed prisoners of war and painted their sails with human blood, which was supposed to appease restive spirits; this practice was recorded by astounded travellers in the 6th century as a nautical tradition.  Maritime law permitted ship captains to throw individuals overboard if they were dangerous and violent.  After the military navy became standing, this authority was retained above and over judicial powers the captain held.  Since captains were not able to pass capital sentences, they relied this ancient power to rid the ship of troublemakers.  Without a prison, this in the early navy was frequent.  In the 10th century, [[Tribune (Themiclesia)#Naval Tribunes|naval tribunes]] were appointed to give additional oversight in the fleet, in much the same way over generals.


===Execution===
===Execution===
Themiclesia executed prisoners publicly in most contexts before the 16th century.  Most executions occurred in the jurisdiction where the sentence was initially passed, since the prisoner would be held there.<ref>While reviews and appeals could be heard in the seat of the prefectural magistrate or the capital city, the parties rarely appeared in person, and procedures were conducted in writing.</ref>  When an execution has been approved, warrants were issued by the Chancellor to the prefectural magistrate and tribune, who would set the date of execution and notify the county where the prisoner is held.  Executions took place near the seat of the magistrate for convenience.  After the county magistrate receives the warrant, the prisoner's limbs were restrained to prevent suicide or escape.  Public executions were stopped in 1584 in the capital city due to a scandal involving a prominent minister.
Themiclesia executed prisoners publicly in most contexts before the 16th century.  Most executions occurred in the jurisdiction where the sentence was initially passed, since the prisoner would be held there.<ref>While reviews and appeals could be heard in the viceregal or capital city, procedures there were conducted by representation.</ref>  When an execution was approved, warrants were issued by the Chancellor to the Chief Justice (in the capital city) or the viceroy (in the provinces), who would set the date of execution and notify the magistrate holding the prisoner.  Executions took place near the seat of the magistrate for convenience.  After the magistrate receives the warrant, the prisoner's limbs were restrained to prevent suicide or escape.  


Dismemberment, as the most severe form of capital punishment, was always carried out in publicSince the law provided that dismemberment implied strangulation of the prisoner's family, this was done firstThe prisoner would be fastened to a wooden frame in the {{wp|spreadeagle (position)|spreadeagle position}}.  After being caned, the prisoner's nose and ears were first sliced offThe left leg, right leg, left arm, and right arms would be severed in this order.  Then, the prisoner was cut in half along his waist, and his organs were pulled out and scattered.  After this, his eyes and tongue were cut out.  When the prisoner is almost dead, his head is severed, and what remains of his body was chopped into pieces so that a complete burial was impossible.   
Bisection and decapitation were carried out by axeThe axe was made by the Department of Instruments (內官, ''nups-kwar''), which otherwise produced standardized weights and measuresA wooden block (質, ''tit'') was used to brace the prisoner's waist or neckIn some periods, it was customary to display decapitated heads in public places, particularly for highly-anticipated cases; after a given interval, displayed heads would be retrieved and united with the body.   


Bisection and decapitation were carried out by axe.  The axe was made by the Department of Instruments (內官, ''nubh-kwar''), which otherwise produced standardized weights and measures.  Measuring from an unissued one, the axe head weighed 9.5 kg and had a curved blade around 33 cm.  There is no record of the lenght of the pole to which the axe head was mounted, though such regulations are likely to have existed.  A wooden block (質, ''tjit'') was used to position the prisoner's waist or neck.  In some periods, it was customary to display decapitated heads in public places, particularly for highly-anticipated cases; after a given interval, displayed heads would be retrieved and united with the body.
Strangulation was performed with a rope fastened around the prisoner's neck and pulled to cause asphyxiationThe rope was pulled by the executioner for a stipulated time.


Strangulation was performed with a rope fastened around the prisoner's neck and twisted taut to cause asphyxiation.
Executions must take place before a [[Tribune (Themiclesia)|commissioner]].  Prisoners in the counties were usually executed near the end of the [[Themiclesian calendar|fiscal year]], which ended at the ninth lunar month each calendar year, so that the magistracy would not budget their rations in the following year.  The tribune would tour the counties during this period.  The exact date on which execution would occur would thus not be known to the prisoner or the magistrate, since travelling times and routes vary.


When an execution took place, a [[Tribune (Themiclesia)|tribune]] must be present to record itPrisoners in the counties were usually executed at the end of the [[Themiclesian calendar|fiscal year]] starting from the middle of the eighth month to the end of the ninth, so that the county would not budget their rations in the following year.<ref>The fiscal year began on the first day of the tenth month.</ref> The prefectural tribune would tour the counties during this period and record executions occurring before himIn the capital city, executions occurred year-round.
For the most part, Themiclesia did not employ professional executionersFor prisoners condemned by a magisterial court, all capital sentences in the locality were carried out by one person discharging annual corvée labour.  Traditions indicate this was an undesirable assignment, though there is little record of public shame as a result.  In a marching army, a soldier would be selected ''ad hoc'' for this purpose; likewise in the navy, the captain can order any person onboard to throw a dangerous criminal into the seaA considerable amount of information about the actual practice of executions come from foreign visitors' accountsAccording to such accounts, botched executions were frequent and perhaps even normal.


Themiclesia did not employ professional executioners.  Who the executioner was depended on the court passing the sentence and the site of the execution.  If the sentence was meted out by the Privy Treasurer or Comptroller of the House, a slave in their respective departments performed the execution.<ref>This would be one of the penal construction brigades for the Privy Treasurer and the Royal Engineers for the Comptroller of the House.</ref>  If the prisoner was in a county or prefectural magistrate's court, the sentence was carried out by one of the prison guards.  Since prison guards were drawn from the local militia, any militiaman could be selected to execute prisoners if they happened to be positioned in prison on the day of execution.<ref>Militiamen were required to serve a fixed number of days every year, usually between 15 and 30, in various local positions that required security. This included public offices, checkpoints, garrisons, and prisons.</ref>  Traditions indicate that this was an undesirable assignment, though there is little record of public shame or ostracism as a result.  In a marching army, a soldier would be selected ''ad hoc'' for this purpose; likewise in the navy, the captain can order any person onboard to throw a dangerous person into the sea.
===Commutations===
It is a rule in Themiclesian administrative law that death warrnats must be conveyed on foot by a messenger walking sequentially from county to county, while a pardon must be delivered on horseback directly to the county where a condemned prisoner is held. This rule is meant to ensure that a pardon should, as much as possible, precede the death warrant. When the {{wp|telegraph}} was introduced, Themiclesian law was amended to state that pardons must be telegraphed as soon as they are sealed, while death warrants must still be delivered on foot.


A considerable amount of information about executions come from Casaterran visitors' accounts, since Themiclesians themselves found writing about such topics distastefulAccording to such accounts, botched executions were frequent, and in 1514 children as young as 10 were publicly executed.
==Exemptions==
===Aliens===
Unless spying in Themiclesia on behalf of an enemy state, aliens were rarely executed even if convicted of a capital crime.  This is generally because Themiclesia found it risky to execute individuals of unknown originsSome jurists also considered it unlawful to punish foreigners for crimes and under laws unique to Themiclesia.  After conviction, alien criminals were usually deported.  This policy continued up to the abolition of capital punishment.


==Aliens==
===Minors===
Unless spying in Themiclesia on behalf of an enemy state, aliens were rarely executed even if convicted of a capital crime.  This is generally because Themiclesia found it risky to execute individuals of unknown originsSome jurists also considered it unlawful to punish foreigners for crimes and under laws unique to ThemiclesiaAfter conviction, alien criminals were usually deported.  This policy continued up to the abolition of capital punishment.
The execution of children is recorded in Themiclesian history, in such terms that make clear that minority of age was not an absolute defence in some cases.  During the Restored Meng dynasty, the punishment for treason was the eradication of the offender's entire family, and it is historical that children of the offender's family were not spared on account of their minority.  However, it appears that the procedure for rendering this punishment was not through the regular system of tribunals and prisons, but by a military force sent to destroy the offender's family and its seat.
 
For other cases, there is conflicting information about the age of criminal culpability, and it seems different standards may have been in force at various locations.  Prior to the Meng dynasty, there were three known age thresholds of culpability, 7 years, 10 years, and 17 years.  In the earliest codifications of penal laws, it is stipulated that "a seven-year-old, even who slays with his or her own hand, shall not be held answerable," (毋侖, ''ma-runh'') implying that children up to and including the age of 7 have absolute immunity even against the crime of murder. Another statute says that a ten-year-old who slays with his or her own hand shall be seized into the lord's hands (become a slave).  It is unclear if one statute replaces another.
 
Some centuries later, it seems children over 10 and up to the age of 17, convicted of murder, could expect their cases to be interrupted and certified to the Royal Court, where a commutation is almost invariably issued.  Refusals to commute children convicted of murder were extremely rare but are known in at least 4 instances.  When this last occurred in 1655, a crowd of considerable size appeared to watch the execution of a 11-year-old.  For other crimes that carry the death penalty for adults, such as robbery, children under the age of 17 were generally not held answerable.
 
It is notable that the "slaying with one's own hand" (手殺人) partially invalidates the defence of minority.  There is little ancient theorization why this should be the rule, and "even to the earliest commentators the culpability of slaying with one's own hands seems to be so strongly stigmatized, that the inapplicability of the defence of minority is not even discussed. Thus, a 9-year-old could (theoretically) get away with setting an entire city on fire and thereby killing hundreds, but not with fatalling stabbing one friend."
 
There were no separate prisons for children in Themiclesia even up to the abolition of capital punishment.
 
The counting rule in the penal law system is favourable to the defendant.  Thus, a child who is 17 years and 364 days old would have been able to avail a plea for a special pardon, and their age will be recognized as the date on which the crime was committed, not the date of the trialConversely, if a special plea is to be entered for senility or imbecility, a defendant who is 70 years and 0 days old will be considered fully 70 years old, and age is recognized on the date the judgement is made, not of the commission of the crime.  If a capital sentence is given before the defendant turns 70 or becomes imbecilic, but they reach the age of 70 or become imbecilic prior to execution, a post-facto plea can still be entered with the Chancery to alter the judgement in view of the senility or imbecility.
 
==Social history==
===Corvée===
Executions were performed as {{wp|corvée}} service by ordinary Themclesian subjects.  After an important fiscal reform in 1080, probably inspired by similar developments in [[Menghe]], executions were separated from the heading of prison guard duty and given particular terms.  Under the new system, eligible labourers were divided into age and gender groups, and each class had some duties specified to or shared between them.  Moreover, performance quotas were set forth, giving the quantity of work expected during one term of service as well as the workload for each day in service, for the convenience of supervision and scheduling.  All executions in a county were expected to be carried out in one work day, but the completion thereof satisfied one term of service.  Most forms of corvée could last 20 – 30 working days.
 
Regulations specified that executions should be performed by males adults, i.e. aged from 20 – 60.  While for some duties there is a stated reason why labourers should be a certain gender or age, it is not apparent from the historical record why executions should be specified for males onlyPossibly it was an attribute inherited from prison guard duty, in which the guard needed to live at the prison, and duties that required lodging away from home were almost always reserved for adult males, such as goods and mail deliveries to other countiesHowever, as of 1080, all executions were expected to be completed in one day, so it is unclear if this remained the rationale for this gender and age assignment.
 
Records suggest that there were no more than five prisoners awaiting execution in most counties at most times, which is consonant with the general restriction that only one person can be given execution duty by a county in a given fiscal year.  But exceptions to this projection have been recorded in history.  For example, after a treasonable conspiracy of alarming magnitude in 1341, Kien-k'ang had 560 people awaiting execution, and (according to regulations in force) one executioner was expected to finish all 560 in one working day.  He could not do so and had to pay a fine each day after the first for the delay.  The executioner was allowed to live at home instead of a government lodge, and so did not need to pay the 1 coin lodging fee per day for those that did.
 
==="Dredging the canals"===
[[Kien-k'ang]]'s canal, which is not a natural waterway, required periodic dredging to prevent the sedimentation from reducing its navigable depth.  This task was assigned to {{wp|corvée}} labourers, as was service as executioner.  Since it was impossible to prevent dumping of waste water, garbage, carcasses, and even occasional human bodies into the canal, those dredging the canal suffered from a superlatively offensive environment as the refuse, no longer submerged when the canal was locked and drained, decomposed in the open air.  From at least the 9th century it was considered the worst possible form of corvée service a citizen could experience.  Likening their loathe, service as executioner was often referred to euphemistically as "dredging the canals".
 
===Photography===
There are at least 17 sets of photographs that depict executions in Themiclesia prior to abolition, and as at the point of abolition the only photographic process in common use was the {{wp|Daguerreotype}}, all photographs are of this kind. Because this process was capable of capturing exceedingly fine images, a great amount is generally known about executions just prior to abolition.  The oldest plate dates to perhaps 1846 or more likely 1847, while there are six sets dedicated to the final group of executions in December 10, 1853; the event was widely published enough to have attracted multiple camera crews. All but two sets were made in the Tlang-qrum Fortress prison, just outside of urban [[Kien-k'ang]] at the time. This prison was demolished almost as soon as capital punishment was abolished to make away for the [[Tlang-qrum Station]], and the execution yard became part of the railway yard.  Whatever remains buried under the station is likely destroyed when it was excavated again in 1911 – 16 to build the [[Central Railway of Kien-k'ang]].
 
Most sets of photographs include at least a picture of prisoners tied down to the posts and a picture of the Royal Attorneys, seated at their table and under a parasol, present to witness the procedure. More than half of the sets also include a shot of the executioner. It appears, however, these pictures were taken with the knowledge of the photographic subjects, and the prison staff had no objection to photography. Most sets also have annotations stating who the photographic subject was, if not providing names. Three sets of photographs do not have annotations, and so it is not possible to ascertain who the individuals depicted were.
 
All known sets depict the scene just prior to the executions: no known plate shows an execution in progress or its aftermath. The lack of plates showing executions in progress was likely because the long exposure times required by the photographic process, and an execution in progress would involve movements that appear on the exposed plate as blur. The lack of aftermaths is less clearly explained; laws against the unauthorized provulgation of deaths were no longer obeyed by the mid-19th century, and deaths were reported freely in the press, and the mere taking of photographs should not constitute a provulgation as such anyway.
 
Once the plates were taken, many were subsequently made into engravings and then printed in Sieuxerr. Their publication was brought to the government's attention in 1850 by a consul in Paris and caused the government to request diplomats to advocate against publication. By 1851, the engravings reached Anglia and Fyrland and sold tens of thousands of copies despite frantic efforts by the Minister to Anglia to block them. Such publications included not only engravings but also lurid and largely fictional texts to accompany the images added by publishers; some engravings also took liberties on the plates and included fictional details. The 1855 edition of the ''Nations of the World'' used the execution plates to represent Themiclesia despite the fact that it had been abolished in 1853, demonstrating the magnitude and longevity of the reputational blemish that lent much support to abolitionism.


==In popular culture==
==In popular culture==
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===Problem of guilt===
===Problem of guilt===
The ancient Themiclesian law on homicide distinguishes intentional and unintentional homicide, and there are only two accepted defences for an intentional homicide—duress or self-defence.  When a homicide has occurred, a ten-man jury is summoned to investigate and determine whether it was intentional; if there was no valid defence to liability, the homicide was ruled criminal and demands punishment.  Since an executioner cannot profess self-defence, the public authority must compel him by force, to create the {{wp|legal fiction}} that the homicide has occurred under duress.  If the executioner had a choice not to execute prisoners, it is implied that he could also choose to do so, which would constitute the crime of murder.
The ancient Themiclesian law on homicide distinguishes intentional from unintentional homicide, and there are only two admissible excuses for an intentional homicide—{{wp|duress}} or {{wp|self-defence}}.  It was evidently held anciently that there was no such thing as a legitimate homicide and that not even royal command could excuse that act.  When a homicide has occurred, a ten-man jury is summoned to determine whether it was intentional; if an intentional homicide could not be excused, capital punishment is imposed.  Since an executioner could not profess self-defence, the public authority compels him by force, creating the {{wp|legal fiction}} that homicide has occurred under duress.   
 
Thus, if an executioner could have declined to serve, it is implied that others made an implicit choice to commit homicide.  Therefore, under the corvée, it is expressly prohibited for a person given executioner duty to avail of substitution, that is to hire another person to serve in his stead for an additional convenience fee payable to the government.  It is held such would imply those who would not hire another person and pay the convenience fee were voluntarily committing the crime of murder, which would invalidate the excuse of duress.
 
In the [[Religion in Themiclesia|religious]] aspect, most religious authorities accepted the premise that service as executioner, like military service, occurred without the assent of the person pressed to serve and therefore did not constitute a religious offence.  Nevertheless, executions, like accidental deaths, were considered pollutions to the city and required a priest to expiate.  To this end, most cities fixed a site for executions, such that the pollution occurred at a designated place.  In earlier centuries, the executioner was to leave the city, refrain from food and sex, and {{wp|fasting|fast}} for a symbolic interval, at the end of which the religious pollution on his person was removed by the ''sghrang'' ceremony; this ceremony was also used for returning armies and individuals exiting a state of mourning.  By the 1800s, the ''sghrang'' ceremony for all forms of pollution by death was reduced to a single line in a quiet ceremony.


===The last executioner===
===The last executioner===
According to public records, the last executioner was the owner of ''Hing-kam-stang'' (興甘商), a store selling imported candies.  The owner was 21 when selected to behead 8 and strangle 26 prisoners on Dec. 10, 1853.  In 1903, he was interviewed for his experiences that day; he said he strongly opposed capital punishment, because "nobody should be in [his] position [in 1853], in a civilized society".  His store later became a teahouse that is still running today.  In 1905, an account of his experiences and those of eight Themiclesians who have been called to perform executions was published by the International Committe for Abolition of Capital Punishment.
{{main|Pang Styit}}
 
According to public records, the last executioner was Pang Styit, the owner of Hing-kem-stang (興甘商), a store selling imported candies whose name literally meant "Stirring Sweets Store".  The owner was only 20 (the first year in which a man was eligible for the corvée) when selected to strangle 34 prisoners on Dec. 10, 1853 at Tlang-qrum PrisonLater in life, he was interviewed for his experiences and stated that he counted himself blessed supernaturally to have survived the ordeal and remained a "normal" person.  In 1895, an account of his experiences and those of five other Themiclesians who have been called to perform executions prior to abolition was published by the International Committe for Abolition of Capital Punishment.
Amongst the things he revealed before his death in 1906, he said that he counted himself extremely lucky to have remained a stable and employable person, since in his youth the ill-effects of executioner duty were widely known.  He gives the example that a Mr. Gam was assigned to execute 71 prisoners in 1821, and only several days hence, he was found to have committed suicide, providing additionally that these tales were not at all infrequent.  The Gam family's appeal for compensation for death during public service was refused by the Board of Royal Counsels (the Emperor's lawyers).  Then, he addressed some claims advanced by retentionists that employing volunteer executioners would resolve this problem.  He compared execution duty to those of dredging up public privies and the canals, into which garbage, feces, and dead bodies were routinely thrown in his day; prior to the abolition of corvée labour, these unpleasant tasks were assigned randomly to men in the local militia, just like executions.  These duties have a reputation for being the causes for disease and madness, or at least being extremely repulsive, to the extent that the city was discussing hiring private contractors for them.
{{quote|Someone can volunteer to dredge up the filth from the sewers or privies, but the disease and miasmata are the same.  The diseases and miasmata are the same whether he is forced to dredge the privies, or paid to do it.}}


==See also==
==See also==

Latest revision as of 02:58, 27 July 2024

Capital punishment in Themiclesia was once stipulated for a number of political and personal crimes, but it has been abolished in 1853; as of 2018, it is no longer a penalty stipulated for any crime in Themiclesia.

History

Capital punishment has been practiced as a punishment for those committing for a wide range of offences and those who are related to said perpetrators.

Origins of capital punishment

It is unclear if Themiclesian societies knew capital punishment as a judicial measure prior to the Classical Period. Only a few excavated and received texts describe judicial procedures in the Archaic Period (from 385 BCE to 100 CE). There is no judicial record in the oracles, and bronzes record oaths that invoke divine and physical punishment for misbehaviour. The stipulated penalties are never carried out as recorded, as it would instead be an instance of shame rather than honour for the commissioner of the inscription. What does appear are records of litigations by victorious parties, often quoting the judgment and the authority that made it for record; however, none of these records involve capital punishment—virtually belong to land and service disputes, i.e. economic litigation.

For later capital crimes, oaths generally appoint fines, corporal punishment, or exile, but these were self-stipulated penalties for breaches of commitments by one individual to another, rather than laws imposed on a general public by an authority. In modern terms, these were contract provisions, rather than public laws.

In Sin and Tsinh, it appears traitors were usually exiled after their lands were confiscated. In the 4th through 2nd centuries BCE, violence against persons was resolved privately, by either retribution or the taking of compensation, with or without the intervention of an authority. This retribution need not occur to the specific offender and was negotiated, often with the participation with an authoritative figure, after the offence had occurred. The role of the authority varies—in some cases the figure acted as judge, in others the authority was more of an advocate or apologist, and in still others it merely provided a locale or occasion for the negotiation. This custom of negotiation for compensation may reflect an absence of injury legislation.

Nevertheless, capital punishment was carried out for sacral offences. It seems, for sacral affairs, early Themiclesians had laws in place that sanctioned actions that might invite the displeasure of supernatural powers. This was the position of Grat, writing in the mid-1800s, that penal law in Themiclesia was an evolution of sacral law. He argued, inter alia, that since virtually all kinds of offence (even treason) could be resolved by paying compensation, the imposition of punishment beyond compensation must originate where paying compensation was impossible or insufficient. Grat's theory is heavily modified in view of advancing knowledge of Archaic jurisprudence but remains a mainstream view of the origin of punishment (including capital punishment) in Themiclesia.

Grat's theory has been supported by the observation that all the early methods of execution—burning alive, burying alive, drowning, evisceration, exsanguination, etc.—were identical to sacrificial actions once the arcane terms that describe them were understood. This would seem to reflect an ancient belief that capital punishment was illicit in se, and only through the imitation of sacral actions could they be legitimized; indeed, there was an enduring stigma around executions being a source of pollution. However, as Jeremy notes, there is a significant leap from human sacrifice to capital punishment in that the victims of the latter were not consecrated to anything, and the process of consecration of the victim was important. Jeremy says that "upon current knowledge, it remains difficult to see an equation of capital punishment to sacrifice." A possible synthesis of these two ideas is the "desacralization theory", where sacral actions were increasingly appropriated for mundane and even pollute uses.

The first uncontested reference to capital punishment in Tsinh appears in 122 CE, immediately after Prince ’An (r. 71 – 105) annexed several colonies and settlments held by extinct aristocratic houses. An edict commanded newly-appointed magistrates to judge colonial residents only according to "former decisions" of his ancestors and to impose only sanctioned punishments—caning, slavery, and mutilation.  He also commanded that punishments must be carried out in a public place, so as to quell doubt as to how malfeasors were disposed of, which was frequently a source of dispute when vengenace between families was common.

4th century law codes

The 2017 excavation at Pri-rem site 30 has yielded an almost-complete copy of laws which most scholars believe was enforced by a royal official in the locality. Amongst its provisions it says, "If the city's priestly household has no children in training and there are condemned prisoners who ought to be executed, can the condemned criminals be sent to the priest instead? Formerly it is said that if the priest was not in cloister and there were [at least] two other priests, this can be done; if the priest was cloistered or if there were not two other priests, it cannot be done. Now, according to the sovereign's command, this is changed. Summon [instead] a child in training from a neighbouring city's priestly household. By this I mean priesthoods of the land, not the commissioner's household's training priest" (邑祝室亡覺子 又死罪噟叏 其至祝不 舊曰居齋外並又它祝二者可 齋中眔亡它祝二不也 今以公令革咸 尚召于鄰邑祝室覺子 又令家祝子非 惟土).

From other law codes it can be gleamed that priests were a hereditary profession, and a priest's son entered training at the age of 11 and graduated at 17. Thus, it may be presumed that criminals were executed by such training priests, probably as part of their training to butcher sacrificial animals correctly in various ceremonies.

The same excavated material also goes towards explaining a rather cryptic passage in the Antiquities of Themiclesia, which recounts the fallout between the king and queen in consequence of the revolt of the Baron of Qryim in 414. The queen had a sister who married a cousin of Qryim, but as the cousin had aided in the revolt by sending troops, the king's justices (in reality under the control of the Duke of Mer as his chief minister) had to order his execution. The queen, however, took the justices' decision without consulting her as a personal insult, arrested the justice, and imprisoned him at her palace. The king was asked by the Duke of Mer to approach the queen to release the justices, and this he did, saying that if Qryim was not killed, he could not face the other nobles who died in battle, on both sides of the conflict.

The queen rejected the king's reasoning and kept the justice in custody for at least four months. However, in 415, she ordered her retainers to take the entire household of the Left Priest and burn them alive on a bridge. Afterwards, she released the justices and told the king she burned the priest to ward off the evil spirits in the city. Ministers congratulated the king on being restored to the queen. The king said to the queen, "The little priest is worth nothing to me." In view of the emergent information, it seems most likely now that Qryim had been executed by a training priest under the Left Priest, and the queen therefore burned his entire family alive in her anger. The story is perhaps quite revealing of priests' rapidly declining social position, being blamed easily for anything that caused royal displeasure.

Codification

In the 3rd century, royal authority expanded and created the relatively stable territory that is today known as the Demesne, where the crown became a universal public authority and enforced a widely-applied legal code. The Code of Kr′ang (康彝) was promulgated in 338, replacing an earlier law code whose contents are completely lost, and repealed some customary laws with codified ones. The character of the code of 338 is transitional: it binds the royal authority to take certain actions when specific conditions were met and rejects the possibility that the prince's judges might give unexpected rulings and sentences, which were impediments to royal litigation.

By the 4th or 5th century, it appears that most offences became the purview of the royal justice system. There are a number of methods of execution specified in the code of 338, including some which are not found in later codes:

  • An ordinary method of execution noted only as "in public", whose specifics are debated; this uncertain method, ironically, was standard and associated with most crimes.
  • Evisceration (磔)—violating religious fasts by sexual intercourse, some violent crimes.
  • Bisection (要斬)—some religious offences, some violent crimes.
  • Beating (笞殺)—reserved for libels against one's liege lord or the crown.
  • Hanging (縣)—done at the city gate, reserved for bigamy, in the specific case where a male becomes married to two women by the rite of invitation.
  • Drowning (滎殺)—spreading diseases or an uncertain type of magic.
  • Burying alive (瘞殺)—some religious offences.
  • Burning (燎)—some religious offences.

Regarding the normal method of execution noted as "in public", there has been two competing theories regarding its exact form. The older theory is that it corresponded with strangulation, which was also noted as "in public" in later centuries; however, it is also widely understood that strangulation was originally a means of assisted suicide, done by someone with the assent of the deceaser. Additionally, this "in public" method of execution was associated with a large basin being placed in front of the prisoner as the execution happened, and strangulation would produce nothing for the basin to catch. In defence of the strangulation theory, some authors said that the basin contained water and was a mirror for the prisoner to look at themself.

A newer theory connects this method of execution to a very common sacrifice, done by cutting the throat of the (human or animal) victim. Depicted in artwork and as described in ritual formulae, a basin was used to catch the blood of the victim as it was needed for another part of the ceremony. This form would rationalize the basin, and additionally it jives with the idea that methods of execution were originally forms of sacrifice. However, this theory is also challenged by those who point out that the "in public" method of execution was used for political crimes, tried by the royal state, which is a newer category of crime in the historical context of the 4th century. If so, it seems difficult to understand why this very common sacrificial form was not employed for older, more established categories of crime.

Historians have commented that there was some uncertainty on the part of the legislator which type of execution should be imposed for newly-identified crimes, which were increasingly of a mundane nature rather than specific religious offences. In later law codes, it was recognized that no matter which execution method was used, the result for the prisoner was the same, but this was evidently not yet the case for the 338 law code. As in earlier centuries, it was possible to commute one form of death to another form of death as they were perceived as distinct punishments.

Remittance and reimposition

A policy to ameliorate the severity of the law in general was announced when the Meng dynasty was restored in Themiclesia, under Emperor Wŏn, who found it necessary to establish his mystique to an alien nation whose throne he had just been put on. He gave an edict in 552:

又死罪,免刑,會赦,勿複刑。又罪當焚、磔、砣、塋、笞殺,自今以來勿複焚、磔、砣、塋、笞殺,其棄罪者市。

Those that have been condemned to death shall be spared mutilations; if a pardon [for the death sentence] be issued, mutilations shall not be applied retroactively to them. Those that have been condemned to be burned, disemboweled, dismembered, buried alive, or beaten to death shall, from this day, not be burned, disemboweled, dismembered, buried alive, or beaten to death, and instead they shall be executed [in the ordinary way].

At roughly the same time, Wŏn commissioned a compilation of a formal penal code, by which most scholars think he meant to gain more influence over the judicial functions of government; to assuage courtiers that his intentions were not to meddle with Themiclesia's customary laws, he cultivated the image of a merciful ruler who wanted to revise laws for abolishing penalties that were unnecessary or overly severe. He also insisted on clothing the condemned, which implies that the prisoners were stripped of their clothes at some point prior to being executed. While it is not known whether his PR campaign had any effect, his chief justice reported to him that

孟天子德眔罪人,主事寮臣皆屯首去。

The grace of the Son of Heaven touches even criminals, and the slaves charged depart [in gratitude] bowing their heads to the ground.

However, later in the dynasty heavy taxation and frequent expropriation encouraged revolts, which were dealt with harshly; this resulted in an expansion of capital offences.

Under the Dzi dynasty (752 – 1185), capital punishment was prohibited for minors under 7, the elderly over 80, and the disabled, in observance of Confucian ethics and the development of a "caring state" that responded to its people's feelings. The number of capital crimes also decreased, and the practice of capital punishment by association was limited to sedition and the perpetrator's immediate family after 818. Methods of execution were limited to decapitation and strangulation in the same year, with bisection and dismemberment deprecated.

Suspension of public executions

In 1580, the Baron of Gwa-lang was implicated in a scandal where his 12-year-old son imitated a public execution to strangle a slave-child. As this event was reported by sources hostile to Gwa-lang, it is unclear if the comparison to a public execution has any substance.

Due to Gwa-lang's unpopularity, the incident was propagated by his vocal opponents as proof of his immoralizing influence. While Gwa-lang could have asked (and almost certainly, obtained) a pardon for his son on account of minority, he forced his son to slit his own throat. But instead of clearing his reputation, he was now understood as a man both immoral and guilty of the grave sin of heir-killing. He then suspended public executions in the capital city Kien-k'ang. However, the bar on public executions was reversed in 1582.

Accompanying punishments

If an individual was sentenced to death, then his household was subject to forfeiture (孥, mna), whereupon his spouse and children became slaves (隸臣妾, reps-gin-stsap) and his movables confiscated. This is comparable to the notion of felony in Casasterran judicial systems.

According to some authorities, forfeiture was a more effective deterrent than capital punishment itself, since forfeitted individuals and their offspring were not released. The government sometimes granted amnesties to prevent slave populations from growing beyond control, but this was not a regular occurrence. Public slaves were a considerable economic resource used for construction and manufacture, to the extent that some historians describe a "palace slave economy", created by the commutation of death to slavery and the pressuring of judges to try for conviction. Initially, public slaves could be sold by the state and were effectively chattel; afterwards, they acquired retained certain rights, even to marry, own private property, and to qualify for manumission under some circumstances.

Forfeiture of dependents was abolished and reimposed several times in history, and finally abolished in 1635. By contrast, forfeiture of chattels remained in effect until 1859.

Abolition

Starting from the early 1800s, the ideals of the Enlightenment found resonance within the political classes. Abolitionist pamphlets argued that capital punishment accomplished little for society's goals and had either no effect or an unsatisfactory on crime, since "year after year heads are chopped off, and year after year there have been more heads to chop off." The existence of crime was attributed by these authors to factors other than the lack of punishment, and the irreversibility of the death penalty also became problematic in their eyes, having little faith in courts away from the capital city as the centre of litigation and juristic study and reform.

While traditional jurisprudence viewed humans as rational actors, it argued that the state should be proactive in imposing costs and rewards to prohibit or compel actions it requires. The existence of crime was attributed to a lack of disincentive or poor enforcement. Reformists challenged this school of thought on several fronts, amongst them the very central idea that punishments were imposed for utilitarian reasons.  They also forwarded the idea that, even though laws do no change, the number of criminals does, which suggests that the cause of crime was not related to the severity of punishments and punishment was not an omnipotent device by which any crime can be discouraged to the rational mind.

Much of the judicature was against abolition of capital punishment and advised the court not to adopt these opinions that grew in popularity. The Tribunes took abolitionism to be a fad that would naturally abate in the 1830s. However, the opinion of the judicature changed when Casaterran travellers published accounts of executions in Themiclesia. One documented a public execution, describing the "sanguine and horrifying affair" that "the city's burgesses would not approach." The document focused not only on the victim's unpleasant deaths and their demeanour near it, but also described stresses caused to the executioner, who was "reduced by the rigours of his duties to a dumb wreck." Conversely, the magistrates and Royal Counsels were "satiated by the discharge of their judgments".

The Prime Minister Lord of Ran became concerned executions reflected negatively on the government and judicature and the potential for dissent if an execution turned out to be wrongful. To this effect he argued for the commutation of capital punishment for a large variety of crimes, except murder.

In 1853, the Rjai-ljang Government abolished capital punishment in favour of perpetual servitude (隸臣 in the case of males; 隸妾 in the case of females), which was argued as a way for criminals to make amends to the state. This form of servitude was for life and was considered equally harsh as capital punishment, and records show that many were worked to death, on public projects dredging canals, building roads, and mending defensive works. Parliament permitted leases on such labourers to private entrepreneurs, who did not need to compensate them for injuries and death. These labourers were responsible for a considerable part of Themiclesia's early railways. While many argued that capital punishment might be restored, this labour replaced many local services that members of the gentry were expected to perform as well as those that employers paid for, so they were largely in favour of abolition.  

In 1895, the Liberal Party argued that penal servitude resembled chattel slavery and was inimical to national reputation and so advocated for its abolition. Thus in 1899, penal servitude as a separate form of punishment was replaced with imprisonment with hard labour. While penal slaves could be required to perform hazardous and painful work, hard labour in prison was more constrained and, in some cases, voluntary. Better regulations also existed to protect the health and prospect for resocialization, which were not extended to penal slaves.

In the armed forces, the situation was less transparent. The militias were not subject to special military law except in battle, and the reform of the Penal Code is understood to prohibit capital punishment in all contexts. However, in one case case in the South Army, a murderer was still caned to death in 1854. Naval law away from shore permitted captains and the Naval Tribune to throw "dangerous and violent" men overboard in an emergency, but in 1870 captains were directed to order his crew and marines to control offenders first, before throwing them overboard. The actual number of those thrown overboard is hard to estimate, since the Navy recorded such deaths as "missing".

Procedures

Ordinary law

Judicial independence developed relately late in Themiclesia, as judicial power was formally held by local magistrates; however, magistrates were usually trained in jurisprudence. Additionally, justiciars (執法, tjep-pjap) were also appointed to answer commoners' legal queries and assist the local magistrate. If a judgment was believed illegal, a litigant could request a retrial or ask the justiciar for an appeal. However, in case of a capital crime, the prisoner was not permitted to request a retrial; instead, his relatives must appeal on his behalf. The rationale for this rule is not clear.

Most courts, excluding those of special jurisdiction, could try capital crimes. In the interest of restraint and with regard to the irreversibility of capital punishment, the review system showed a trend towards caution. Early in the Tsjinh, any magistrate could pass a capital sentence, but later in that dynasty, it could be passed only by an administrator of the 2,000-bushel rank. After this, the Chief Justiciar, Vice Chancellor, and Chancellor would need to confirm the judgment before the monarch's approval for execution is sought. After 1845, the House of Lords reviewed capital crimes by a majority vote, and the emperor's role was reduced to a ceremonial one.

Martial law

While there was no specialized military law code until fairly recently, specific offences were only applicable to military officials and soldiers in specific positions. Early Themiclesia had no standing military, and it seems militiamen in their home prefectures breaking laws were tried by the province's justice and punished in the same manner as though they were not in service. When units were sent across borders, the court usually appointed a general or another court official to oversee their actions, who tried and punished them likewise. Provincial justices and generals were at the required rank to pass capital sentences by themselves, without further authority from above.

The law of obstruction of the forces (灋旬興, paps-kwir-heng) was introduced when the Mrangh dynasty was established in Themiclesia. It imposed capital punishment for any individual whatsoever who intentionally obstructed the timely and lawful operation of military forces; the wording of the statute was vague, which rendered it dangerous. Counter to this law was the equally general offence of corruption of the law (亂灋, rwar-paps), which punished any official who perversely interpretated the law to arrogate authority by death.

In many cases generals were not required to submit their capital sentences for review before execution; however, certain checks still existed to prevent abuse. Whenever a general was appointed, a commisisoner (監御史, kram-ngha-sreq) followed and monitored the general. The commissioner was invariably a trained jurist. While this was done most likely to prevent serious misgovernment, the tribune's purview extended over all of the general's decisions, including judicial ones. While tribunes may not prevent the general from taking decisions, they could report them after the fact; such reports were taken seriously by the court, and even victorious generals have been executed if found guilty. To counter the watchful commissioner, a normal general's staff included a judicial department. Generals relied their own jurists to inform his decisions and to submit briefs to the crown in his defence, if his decisions were contested by the tribune.

The Themiclesian navies possessed distinct rules relating to capital punishment. Save in battle, killing (both humans and animals) on board was prohibited, as it was deemed a cursing act. To lift it, crews sacrificed prisoners of war and painted their sails with human blood, which was supposed to appease restive spirits; this practice was recorded by astounded travellers in the 6th century as a nautical tradition. Maritime law permitted ship captains to throw individuals overboard if they were dangerous and violent. After the military navy became standing, this authority was retained above and over judicial powers the captain held. Since captains were not able to pass capital sentences, they relied this ancient power to rid the ship of troublemakers. Without a prison, this in the early navy was frequent. In the 10th century, naval tribunes were appointed to give additional oversight in the fleet, in much the same way over generals.

Execution

Themiclesia executed prisoners publicly in most contexts before the 16th century. Most executions occurred in the jurisdiction where the sentence was initially passed, since the prisoner would be held there.[1] When an execution was approved, warrants were issued by the Chancellor to the Chief Justice (in the capital city) or the viceroy (in the provinces), who would set the date of execution and notify the magistrate holding the prisoner. Executions took place near the seat of the magistrate for convenience. After the magistrate receives the warrant, the prisoner's limbs were restrained to prevent suicide or escape.

Bisection and decapitation were carried out by axe. The axe was made by the Department of Instruments (內官, nups-kwar), which otherwise produced standardized weights and measures. A wooden block (質, tit) was used to brace the prisoner's waist or neck. In some periods, it was customary to display decapitated heads in public places, particularly for highly-anticipated cases; after a given interval, displayed heads would be retrieved and united with the body.

Strangulation was performed with a rope fastened around the prisoner's neck and pulled to cause asphyxiation. The rope was pulled by the executioner for a stipulated time.

Executions must take place before a commissioner. Prisoners in the counties were usually executed near the end of the fiscal year, which ended at the ninth lunar month each calendar year, so that the magistracy would not budget their rations in the following year. The tribune would tour the counties during this period. The exact date on which execution would occur would thus not be known to the prisoner or the magistrate, since travelling times and routes vary.

For the most part, Themiclesia did not employ professional executioners. For prisoners condemned by a magisterial court, all capital sentences in the locality were carried out by one person discharging annual corvée labour. Traditions indicate this was an undesirable assignment, though there is little record of public shame as a result. In a marching army, a soldier would be selected ad hoc for this purpose; likewise in the navy, the captain can order any person onboard to throw a dangerous criminal into the sea. A considerable amount of information about the actual practice of executions come from foreign visitors' accounts. According to such accounts, botched executions were frequent and perhaps even normal.

Commutations

It is a rule in Themiclesian administrative law that death warrnats must be conveyed on foot by a messenger walking sequentially from county to county, while a pardon must be delivered on horseback directly to the county where a condemned prisoner is held. This rule is meant to ensure that a pardon should, as much as possible, precede the death warrant. When the telegraph was introduced, Themiclesian law was amended to state that pardons must be telegraphed as soon as they are sealed, while death warrants must still be delivered on foot.

Exemptions

Aliens

Unless spying in Themiclesia on behalf of an enemy state, aliens were rarely executed even if convicted of a capital crime. This is generally because Themiclesia found it risky to execute individuals of unknown origins. Some jurists also considered it unlawful to punish foreigners for crimes and under laws unique to Themiclesia. After conviction, alien criminals were usually deported. This policy continued up to the abolition of capital punishment.

Minors

The execution of children is recorded in Themiclesian history, in such terms that make clear that minority of age was not an absolute defence in some cases. During the Restored Meng dynasty, the punishment for treason was the eradication of the offender's entire family, and it is historical that children of the offender's family were not spared on account of their minority. However, it appears that the procedure for rendering this punishment was not through the regular system of tribunals and prisons, but by a military force sent to destroy the offender's family and its seat.

For other cases, there is conflicting information about the age of criminal culpability, and it seems different standards may have been in force at various locations. Prior to the Meng dynasty, there were three known age thresholds of culpability, 7 years, 10 years, and 17 years. In the earliest codifications of penal laws, it is stipulated that "a seven-year-old, even who slays with his or her own hand, shall not be held answerable," (毋侖, ma-runh) implying that children up to and including the age of 7 have absolute immunity even against the crime of murder. Another statute says that a ten-year-old who slays with his or her own hand shall be seized into the lord's hands (become a slave). It is unclear if one statute replaces another.

Some centuries later, it seems children over 10 and up to the age of 17, convicted of murder, could expect their cases to be interrupted and certified to the Royal Court, where a commutation is almost invariably issued. Refusals to commute children convicted of murder were extremely rare but are known in at least 4 instances. When this last occurred in 1655, a crowd of considerable size appeared to watch the execution of a 11-year-old. For other crimes that carry the death penalty for adults, such as robbery, children under the age of 17 were generally not held answerable.

It is notable that the "slaying with one's own hand" (手殺人) partially invalidates the defence of minority. There is little ancient theorization why this should be the rule, and "even to the earliest commentators the culpability of slaying with one's own hands seems to be so strongly stigmatized, that the inapplicability of the defence of minority is not even discussed. Thus, a 9-year-old could (theoretically) get away with setting an entire city on fire and thereby killing hundreds, but not with fatalling stabbing one friend."

There were no separate prisons for children in Themiclesia even up to the abolition of capital punishment.

The counting rule in the penal law system is favourable to the defendant. Thus, a child who is 17 years and 364 days old would have been able to avail a plea for a special pardon, and their age will be recognized as the date on which the crime was committed, not the date of the trial. Conversely, if a special plea is to be entered for senility or imbecility, a defendant who is 70 years and 0 days old will be considered fully 70 years old, and age is recognized on the date the judgement is made, not of the commission of the crime. If a capital sentence is given before the defendant turns 70 or becomes imbecilic, but they reach the age of 70 or become imbecilic prior to execution, a post-facto plea can still be entered with the Chancery to alter the judgement in view of the senility or imbecility.

Social history

Corvée

Executions were performed as corvée service by ordinary Themclesian subjects. After an important fiscal reform in 1080, probably inspired by similar developments in Menghe, executions were separated from the heading of prison guard duty and given particular terms. Under the new system, eligible labourers were divided into age and gender groups, and each class had some duties specified to or shared between them. Moreover, performance quotas were set forth, giving the quantity of work expected during one term of service as well as the workload for each day in service, for the convenience of supervision and scheduling. All executions in a county were expected to be carried out in one work day, but the completion thereof satisfied one term of service. Most forms of corvée could last 20 – 30 working days.

Regulations specified that executions should be performed by males adults, i.e. aged from 20 – 60. While for some duties there is a stated reason why labourers should be a certain gender or age, it is not apparent from the historical record why executions should be specified for males only. Possibly it was an attribute inherited from prison guard duty, in which the guard needed to live at the prison, and duties that required lodging away from home were almost always reserved for adult males, such as goods and mail deliveries to other counties. However, as of 1080, all executions were expected to be completed in one day, so it is unclear if this remained the rationale for this gender and age assignment.

Records suggest that there were no more than five prisoners awaiting execution in most counties at most times, which is consonant with the general restriction that only one person can be given execution duty by a county in a given fiscal year. But exceptions to this projection have been recorded in history. For example, after a treasonable conspiracy of alarming magnitude in 1341, Kien-k'ang had 560 people awaiting execution, and (according to regulations in force) one executioner was expected to finish all 560 in one working day. He could not do so and had to pay a fine each day after the first for the delay. The executioner was allowed to live at home instead of a government lodge, and so did not need to pay the 1 coin lodging fee per day for those that did.

"Dredging the canals"

Kien-k'ang's canal, which is not a natural waterway, required periodic dredging to prevent the sedimentation from reducing its navigable depth. This task was assigned to corvée labourers, as was service as executioner. Since it was impossible to prevent dumping of waste water, garbage, carcasses, and even occasional human bodies into the canal, those dredging the canal suffered from a superlatively offensive environment as the refuse, no longer submerged when the canal was locked and drained, decomposed in the open air. From at least the 9th century it was considered the worst possible form of corvée service a citizen could experience. Likening their loathe, service as executioner was often referred to euphemistically as "dredging the canals".

Photography

There are at least 17 sets of photographs that depict executions in Themiclesia prior to abolition, and as at the point of abolition the only photographic process in common use was the Daguerreotype, all photographs are of this kind. Because this process was capable of capturing exceedingly fine images, a great amount is generally known about executions just prior to abolition. The oldest plate dates to perhaps 1846 or more likely 1847, while there are six sets dedicated to the final group of executions in December 10, 1853; the event was widely published enough to have attracted multiple camera crews. All but two sets were made in the Tlang-qrum Fortress prison, just outside of urban Kien-k'ang at the time. This prison was demolished almost as soon as capital punishment was abolished to make away for the Tlang-qrum Station, and the execution yard became part of the railway yard. Whatever remains buried under the station is likely destroyed when it was excavated again in 1911 – 16 to build the Central Railway of Kien-k'ang.

Most sets of photographs include at least a picture of prisoners tied down to the posts and a picture of the Royal Attorneys, seated at their table and under a parasol, present to witness the procedure. More than half of the sets also include a shot of the executioner. It appears, however, these pictures were taken with the knowledge of the photographic subjects, and the prison staff had no objection to photography. Most sets also have annotations stating who the photographic subject was, if not providing names. Three sets of photographs do not have annotations, and so it is not possible to ascertain who the individuals depicted were.

All known sets depict the scene just prior to the executions: no known plate shows an execution in progress or its aftermath. The lack of plates showing executions in progress was likely because the long exposure times required by the photographic process, and an execution in progress would involve movements that appear on the exposed plate as blur. The lack of aftermaths is less clearly explained; laws against the unauthorized provulgation of deaths were no longer obeyed by the mid-19th century, and deaths were reported freely in the press, and the mere taking of photographs should not constitute a provulgation as such anyway.

Once the plates were taken, many were subsequently made into engravings and then printed in Sieuxerr. Their publication was brought to the government's attention in 1850 by a consul in Paris and caused the government to request diplomats to advocate against publication. By 1851, the engravings reached Anglia and Fyrland and sold tens of thousands of copies despite frantic efforts by the Minister to Anglia to block them. Such publications included not only engravings but also lurid and largely fictional texts to accompany the images added by publishers; some engravings also took liberties on the plates and included fictional details. The 1855 edition of the Nations of the World used the execution plates to represent Themiclesia despite the fact that it had been abolished in 1853, demonstrating the magnitude and longevity of the reputational blemish that lent much support to abolitionism.

In popular culture

Dramatic portrayals

Historical drama frequently depicts individuals being sentenced to death and executed instantly; however, there are no historical records of such occurrences. As state above, there is a complex procedure around capital punishment that, for reasons of dramatic portrayal, would be of little interest to the audience. There is also a tendency to depict executioners shirtless and wearing a mask of some kind, for which there is no historical basis in Themiclesia. Authorities regard this an example of influence from Casaterran theatre, where executioners have this stock appearance.

Problem of guilt

The ancient Themiclesian law on homicide distinguishes intentional from unintentional homicide, and there are only two admissible excuses for an intentional homicide—duress or self-defence. It was evidently held anciently that there was no such thing as a legitimate homicide and that not even royal command could excuse that act. When a homicide has occurred, a ten-man jury is summoned to determine whether it was intentional; if an intentional homicide could not be excused, capital punishment is imposed. Since an executioner could not profess self-defence, the public authority compels him by force, creating the legal fiction that homicide has occurred under duress.

Thus, if an executioner could have declined to serve, it is implied that others made an implicit choice to commit homicide. Therefore, under the corvée, it is expressly prohibited for a person given executioner duty to avail of substitution, that is to hire another person to serve in his stead for an additional convenience fee payable to the government. It is held such would imply those who would not hire another person and pay the convenience fee were voluntarily committing the crime of murder, which would invalidate the excuse of duress.

In the religious aspect, most religious authorities accepted the premise that service as executioner, like military service, occurred without the assent of the person pressed to serve and therefore did not constitute a religious offence. Nevertheless, executions, like accidental deaths, were considered pollutions to the city and required a priest to expiate. To this end, most cities fixed a site for executions, such that the pollution occurred at a designated place. In earlier centuries, the executioner was to leave the city, refrain from food and sex, and fast for a symbolic interval, at the end of which the religious pollution on his person was removed by the sghrang ceremony; this ceremony was also used for returning armies and individuals exiting a state of mourning. By the 1800s, the sghrang ceremony for all forms of pollution by death was reduced to a single line in a quiet ceremony.

The last executioner

According to public records, the last executioner was Pang Styit, the owner of Hing-kem-stang (興甘商), a store selling imported candies whose name literally meant "Stirring Sweets Store". The owner was only 20 (the first year in which a man was eligible for the corvée) when selected to strangle 34 prisoners on Dec. 10, 1853 at Tlang-qrum Prison. Later in life, he was interviewed for his experiences and stated that he counted himself blessed supernaturally to have survived the ordeal and remained a "normal" person. In 1895, an account of his experiences and those of five other Themiclesians who have been called to perform executions prior to abolition was published by the International Committe for Abolition of Capital Punishment.

See also

Notes

  1. While reviews and appeals could be heard in the viceregal or capital city, procedures there were conducted by representation.