Capital punishment is forbidden inSwitzerland under article 10, paragraph 1 of theSwiss Federal Constitution.Capital punishment was abolished fromfederal criminal law in 1942, but remained available in military criminal law until 1992. The last actual executions in Switzerland took placeduring World War II.
In the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, the most common method of execution, at least for males, wasdecapitation with asword. The archivistGerold Meyer von Knonau has provided statistics for the canton ofZurich from the 15th century up to and including the 18th century. 1,445 persons were condemned to death (1,198 men, 247 women). 915 of these were sentenced to be beheaded, 270 hanged, 130 burnt alive, 99 drowned, 26broken on the wheel, 1 quartered alive, 2 buried alive, 1immured, and the last one wasimpaled. The last three execution methods were in use in the 15th century; drowning was discontinued in 1613.[1]
In 1835, theguillotine was added, although many cantons allowed the condemned person to choose between these two methods. One of the last people to be executed with a sword wasNiklaus Emmenegger inLucerne on 6 July 1867. Geneviève Guénat, the last woman to be executed, was beheaded by this method inDelsberg,Bern on 7 September 1862, Héli Freymond inVaud on 11 January 1868.[2] In 1848 the death penalty forpolitical crimes was forbidden by the constitution. In 1874, with theintroduction of the new federal constitution in 1874, it was generally abolished throughout the country. However, because of an increase in crime – much due to theeconomic depression at the time – capital punishmentwas re-introduced in 1879. The revocation of the ban, however, was not obligatory and only a number of cantons chose to reinstate the penalty on the cantonal level.
On 21 December 1937 theFederal Assembly of Switzerland adopted the first nationalcriminal code. It abolished capital punishment, which had been provided for by several cantonal criminal codes. The new code was ratified byreferendum on 3 July 1938 and entered into force on 1 January 1942. The last person to be sentenced to death by a civil court and executed wasHans Vollenweider, convicted of threemurders and then executed on 18 October 1940 inSarnen,Obwalden. Because of the impending abolition, Vollenweider's verdict – performed with a guillotine borrowed fromLucerne – was controversial.
Swissmilitary law, however, still provided for capital punishment fortreason and certain other military offenses such as desertion in the face of the enemy. DuringWorld War II, 33 people were sentenced to death for spying forNazi Germany, 15 of them in absentia. Seventeen of those condemned were executed, all of them by firing squad. With the exception of one man fromLiechtenstein (Alfred Quaderer), all of those executed were Swiss.[3] This law was abolished by the Federal Assembly on 20 March 1992 after a parliamentary initiative byMassimo Pini of theFree Democratic Party of Switzerland. The 1999Swiss Federal Constitution then banned capital punishment at the constitutional level.
In 1979, National Council memberValentin Oehen fromSwiss Democrats (DS) submitted a parliamentary initiative that would have introduced the death penalty for murder and terrorism involving hostage-taking. The National Council rejected this by 131 votes to 3.[4]
Twoinitiatives have so far been launched to amend the Constitution to provide for the reintroduction of capital punishment. The first, in 1985, would have madedrug dealing punishable by death. It did not manage to collect the required 100,000 signatures for a binding national referendum.[5]
In August 2010, the family members of a murder victim launched a new constitutional amendment initiative proposing the introduction of capital punishment in cases involving murder combined with sexual violence.[5] The initiative quickly found itself at the centre of public attention and was roundly rejected by political leaders; it was withdrawn a day after its official publication.[6]