Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-01-04
NO. 4.
(Ffom the Portland Press.
Capital Punishment.
The RESULT WHICH FOLLOWED ITS ABoLI-
rroN IN FINLAND.

rIoN IN FINLAND.
To The Editor OF the Press:
Recent statements of the Press in regard
to the increase of murders and other afro
cious crimes in Maine, the present year, have
prompted me to furnish for its columns
the following valuable information from an
other country touching the same subject:
Just before closing my official residence in
Stockholm Judge Olivecrona Of the Supreme
Court of Sweden, placed in my hands copy
of communication he had recently published
in the French "Critical Review of Legisls-
ton and Jurisprudence" which gives the
experience obtained by the suppression Of
the death penalty in Finlfnd from 1926 to
1850, a period of ffty.four years. Finland,
a country about twice the territorial size Of
New England, with present population Of
rising two millions, il will be remembered.
was united with Sweden nearly seven hun
dred years prior to 1909, when it was forci-
bly, annexed to Russia. The Gar ever since
il became part of Russia has deemed it ex-
pedient to allow it to manage its own affairs
much more than any other portion of his
domnions. 1t is allowed its parliament and
legislation and its own criminal code.
Judge Olivecrona is the most learned of
Swedish Supreme Judges; was formerly Pro.
principal university of the kingdom, and one
of the Oldest and most respectable Of North
ern Europe. He has long taken deep inter-
est in the discussion of the death penalty,
and is 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 pun
ishment are in no sense the result of theolog-
ical bias. He is conservative and exem-
plary member of the Lutheran evangelical
church.
According to the language of Judge Olive
crona in the French Review the Attorney
General of Finland, Mr.. Sejerholm, says
that among the great number of evident
proofs furnished in the debates concerning
the penalty of death, one especially pre-
dominates, 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 de-
clared "his conscience did not permit him to
approve a capital sentence unless the reason
Of the crime was the disturbance of the State,
and 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 penalty"
Mr.. Sederholm, the Attorney General OBJ
serves
"The proof has never been furnished that the
number Of crimes liable to the penalty of death
has augmented since the promulgation of that law,
but IL has been sought to find the of the fore
going TACT in the circumstance that the menace Of
the penalty had remained in the law. and that 1t can
become at any time a re- ality
He adds:
"This argument, worthy of little attention at first,
has assuredly henceorth lost all Importance. Thus
the sincere conviction that the abolition Of the death
sted IN the pubIc mnd long before Il had begun to
be established by official figures that all the fears In
that regard were without reason
In his report of 1866 Mr.. Won Knorring,
then Attorney &c neral, furnished statistical
data extending from 1910 to 1860, as to the
number of individuals condemned for mur-
der, and the penalties suffered by them.
That distinguished functionary then declared
it his opinion that ''the abolition in fact Of
the death penalty has not been without an
evident influence on the diminution observed
by the number of murders" Mr.. Sederholm
continued the statistical tables commenced
by his predecessor, Mr.. Won Knorring. Ac-
cording to the official tables of Mr.. Seder-
holm, the number of individuals condemned
to death without recommendation to mercy
averaged per year, in the decade from 1926
to 1886, fifteen in entire in Finland; from
1886 to 1916 the average per year was thirteen
and one-half from 1916 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 L.
100, 900; in ls4O. l,4OO, 900; in 1850. $780,
600; in 1860, 1000 in 1870, 1856, 600;
in 1880, 1000, 900. Thus, in the ffty-four
years in which the death penalty was dead
letter, the ratio of reduction Of capital crimes
and convictions was very marked. Probably
there Is not in existence another such con-
tinuous and complete piece of statistical in
formation relative to the effect of suppressing
the death penalty, as this from the judicial
archives of Finland. Her management of
the question, as well as her experience for
more than half century has been similar to
that of Maine during the thirty auspicious
years following 1885. The period has been
sufficiently long to allow the full and varied
forces of the philosophy of crime to come
into play, and the lesson is of great value.
When Judge Olivecrona placed in my
hands the valuable paper from which these
facts have been taken, he informed me that
Holland, one of the most wisely and carefully
governed nations of Europe, after having
tried the abolition of the death penalty fifteen
or twentv years, had finally permanently con-
formed her criminal code to the successful
experience gained by no longer allowing the
hangman as fitting agent Of the law. Wish
ing to verify this information soon took &C.
casion to ask the Holland Minister at Stock
holm if Judge OIivecrona was entirely correct.
He answered me that I had been correctly
informed. JoHN L. STEVENS.
Augusta, Dec. Is, 1888.