Capital punishment in Montecara
Capital punishment in Montecara is forbidden by the constitution. Montecara was, in 1190, the first jurisdiction in world history to ban the death penalty, although capital punishment was reinstated and subsequently abolished several times over its history. The Montecaran government has made death-penalty abolition a priority in its foreign policy.
History
Death as a punishment for crime has a history in Montecara dating back at least to the Solarian Republic. Solarian law called for capital punishment in a variety of circumstances, including murder, desertion from the army, cowardice in battle, and certain cases of adultery. The methods used varied greatly and included at various times forced gladiatorial combat, drowning, exposure to vicious animals, and throwing from a height, but the most "honorable" and most commonly practiced method was beheading with a sword.
The Solarian law codes remained in force in Montecara even after the empire itself withdrew, and the Montecaran state conducted executions with some regularity between about 500 and 1000. Records indicate that those condemned were often slaves or servants, especially those who had killed their masters. Members of the upper classes, and especially those from senatorial families, were essentially never executed, but were forced into exile instead or allowed to settle intra-family crimes of their own accord. Execution came to be seen as a particularly humiliating and extraordinary way to die, as much a means to warn potentially rebellious slaves as a way to dispense justice. The means, where they are recorded, are generally either the garotte or pressing with stones, the latter seemingly reserved for the very worst offenders.
By the 12th century, the Montecaran trade empire had grown to such an extent that there was an insatiable need for galley slaves to man the cogs and warships that kept trade routes flowing. This meant that the state could hardly afford to execute anyone who might be pressed into service, so enslavement at sea replaced the death penalty entirely by the end of the century. The last recorded execution took place in 1190 and involved an old slave woman who had been convicted of murdering her master's infant child.
The death penalty was not reinstated until the Gaullican occupation of Montecara in 1810. It was abolished again on the Gaullicans' withdrawal in 1935, briefly resumed under the Etrurian occupation from 1944 to 1946, and finally abolished permanently with the adoption of the new constitution in 1948.
Although the death penalty was not a legal punishment for centuries, certain criminals nonetheless paid dearly for their crimes, with death an occasional by-product. It was not uncommon for traitors to be branded on the cheeks and forehead, blinded, and castrated, an ordeal that many did not survive. It was not until the late eighteenth century that this form of rough justice was ended.