Capital punishment in Ireland

Capital punishment in Ireland was abolished in 1990, and has been prohibited by the Constitution of Ireland since 2002.

Until 1964 the death penalty had been available for treason, murder, piracy with violence and war crimes. [ [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1962/en/act/pub/0011/sec0003.html#zza11y1962s3 Irish Statute Book, Acts of the Oireachtas, Geneva Conventions Act, 1962, Section 3 ] ] [ [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1964/en/act/pub/0005/print.html Criminal Justice Act 1964] ] In that year the death penalty was abolished for piracy, war crimes and most murders, and continued to be available only in cases of treason and murdering a Garda (police officer), prison officer, foreign head of state or diplomat or government member, and murders committed in the course or furtherance of certain offences under the Offences against the State Act 1939. The death penalty was also available for four offences under military law. [ [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1954/en/act/pub/0018/index.html#zza18y1954 Defence Act 1954] , sections 124, 125, 127 and 128] (Under Article 39 of the Constitution, "treason shall consist only in levying war against the State, or assisting any State or person or inciting or conspiring with any person to levy war against the State, or attempting by force of arms or other violent means to overthrow the organs of government established by the Constitution, or taking part or being concerned in or inciting or conspiring with any person to make or to take part or be concerned in any such attempt." [ [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1939/en/act/pub/0010/index.html#zza10y1939 Treason Act 1939] ] )

The death penalty was completely abolished for all offences by the Criminal Justice Act 1990, [ [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1990/en/act/pub/0016/print.html Criminal Justice Act 1990] ] which made the penalty for treason and first-degree murder life imprisonment, with parole in not less than forty years.

In 1994, the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights came into force in Ireland, prohibiting the death penalty in peacetime. Later, Ireland adopted the Thirteenth Protocol, which prohibits the death penalty in wartime, and also the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The abolition was written into the Irish Constitution in 2002 with the Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.

Michael Manning was the last person hanged for the crime of murder in Ireland. [ [http://www.rte.ie/news/features/referenda/death/tonyconnelly1.html Death penalty in Ireland] ] He was executed on 20 April 1954. The last person to be executed for a military offence was Charles Kerrins. He was hanged on 12 November 1944. The last two death sentences were issued on 3 December 1985, but were commuted.

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