The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-12-19
Capital Punishment.
The Result Which Followed its Abolition
i'm Finland.

INC luCIOds0 VI uuEu6ES anu Obl6f abEUClUub
crimes in Maine, the present year, have
prompted me to furnish for its columns the
following valuable information from another
country touching upon the same subject:
just before closing my official residence in
Stockholm Judge Olivecrova of the Supreme
Court of Sweden, placed in my hands copy
of communication he had recently published
in the French Critical Review Of Legislation
and Jurisprudence" which gives the expert
ence obtained by the suppression of the death
penalty in Finland from 1926 to 1880, period
of ffty-four years. Finland. a country about
twice the territorial size Of New England, with
a present population of rising two millions, it
will be remembered, was united with Sweden
nearly seven hundred years prior to 1909, when
1t was forcibly annexed to Russia. The Gear
ever since it became apart of Russia has
deemed it eypedient to allow it to manage
its own affairs much more than any other por-
tion of his dominions. 1t is allowed its par
lament and legislation and its own criminal
code.
Judge Olivecrona is the most learned of the
Swedish Supreme judges; was formerly Pro-
lessor of Law at the Upsala University the
principal university of the kingdom, and one
of the Oldest and most respectable of Northern
Europe. He has long taken deep interest in
the discussion Of the death penalty, and is a
strong advocate of its abolition. The facts
given by him relative to Finland cannot fail to
be of interest at this time to the readers of the
PRESS. A man OF deep moral convictions he
is not radical on public questions, His views
on capital punishment are in no sense the re-
suit of theological bias. He is a conservative
and exemplary member of the Lutheran evan
gelical church.
According to the language Of Judge Olive
clov in the French Review the Attorney Gen.
eral of Finland, Mr.. Sederholm, says that
among the great number of evident proofs fur
nished in the debates concerning the penalty
of death one especially predominates, that is
the experience obtained in that country by the
practical abolition of that penalty since 1926.
In the imperial ordinance of April 81, 1926, the
Emperor Nicholas declared ahis conscience
did not permit him to approve capital sem
tence unless the reason of the crime was the
disturbance of the State, and that consequently
in all other cases involving condemnation to
death he would exercise his right of pardon,
belonging to him by the fundamental laws Of
Finland, to avoid the execution Of that pen
atty"
Mr.. Sederholm, the Attorneys General, OBJ
serves:
"The proof has never been furnished that
the number of grave crimes liable to the pen
atty OF death has augmented since the promul-
cation OF that law, but 1t has been sought to
find the reason of the foregoing fact in the cir
cumstance that the menace of the penalty had
remained in the law, and that it can become at
any time reality"
He adds:
"This argument, worthy of little attention at
first, has assuredly henceforth lost all impor-
lance. Thus the si1cete conviction that the
abolition of the death penalty in Finland ad-
mits of no peril for society existed in the pub.
lie mind long before it had begun to be estab-
lished by official figures, that all the fears in
that regard were without reason
In his report of 1866 Mr.. Won Kuorring,
then Attorney General, furnished statistical
data extending from 1910 to 1860, as to the
number of individuals condemned for murder,
and the penalties suffered by them. That dis
tinguished functionary then declared it his
opinion that "the abolition in fact of the death
penalty has not been without an evident infiu-
ence on the diminution observed in the num-
the statistical tables commenced by his prede-
cessor, Mr.. Won Knorring. According to the
official tables of Mr.. Sederholm, the number of
individuals condemned to death without rec
to mercy averaged per year, In
the decade from 1926 to 1886, fifteen in entire |
Finland; from 1886 to 1916 the average Der
year was thirteen and one half; from 1886 to |
1856 the annual average was sixteen; from |
1856 to 1866 the annual average was sixteen; |
from 1866 to 1876 the average was eleven per |
year, and for the five years closing with 1880 |
the yearly average was seven.
The population of Finland was in 1926 1,1O0,- |
100; in 1910, 100000; in 1850, 1,550,OO0; in |
1860, 100000; in 1870, 1850, 900; in 1880, o.
100000. Thus, in the fifty-four years in which |
he death penalty was dead letter, the ratio /
If reduction of capital crimes and convictions |
vas very marked. Probably there is not in ex-
stence another such continuous and complete |
,iece ofstatistical information relative to the Of
ect of suppressing the death penalty, as this
rom the judicial archives of Finland. Her man.
lgement of the question, as well as her expert
,nce for more than half century has been
similar to that of Maine during the thirty aus
picious years following 1885. The period has
been sufficiently long to allow the full and va
red forces of the philosophy of crime to come
INTO play, and the lesson is of great value.
When Judge Olivecrova placed in my hands
he valuable paper from which these facts
rave been taken, he informed me that Hol.
and, one of the most wisely and carefully gov
,rned nations of Europe, after having tried the
abolition of the death penalty fifteen or TWEEN
y years, had finally permanently conformed
Ter criminal code to the successful experience
,ained by no longer allowing the hangman as
fitting agent of the law. Wishing to verify
his information soon after took occasion to
Isk the Holland Minister at Stockholm IL
Judge Olivecrova was entirely correct. He in
ormed me that I had been correctly informed
JOHN L. STEVENS
Augusta, Dec. IS, 1885,