Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1852-09-01 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

PRUSSIA. - NEW MODE OF INFLICTING  PUNISILMENT.—Under the revised penal code :Prussia, it is provided that executions are no longer In public; the sentence of the law is carried into ant in an enclosed space attached either to the prison me other building, as may be appointed. Though oral punishment is seldom inflicted in Prussia, it is fl3O means abolished ; it remains on the statute book ,rerimes of the deepest kind; and though in most cases a sentence is commuted to imprisonment for life, the ..ser of inflicting it is retained. The first execution .er the new system, in the district of Berlin, took , e last week at the prison of Aloabit, about a mile an the city. 'bloc criminal was a peasant named Lamm, mlemned to death for the murder of his Uncle. The quiations of the new code were strictly observed. They ?quite that the members of the Court which pronounces  1 sentence shall also be present at its fuliilment, to- \ :ether with the public prosecutors, or Staatsanwalte, of ie district and city criminal courts, and a deputation of ie commune in which the prison or place of execution ay be situate. On the present occasion all the persons xupelled to attend ex officio were present ; a few persons ~anected with the several courts were also admitted by ckets, but the public were kept in ignorance both of tee place and hour of the execution. The yard of the am prison in front of the south-west tower was appointed. .1 body of mounted police guarded the external appaches; but there was scarcely any occasion for their 1 wakes, very few persons having assembled. The block sit placed on a square flooring, laid on the ground and tainted black. At a few minutes before six, the con'mined criminal was brought from his cell between two i , ~..dirrs; his sentence and the death warrant were read .rue the judges of the court. To the question whether Anowledged himself to he the person named in the . .. . .. . ..  !a;:a-M-,be re'plied " .la," apparently without concern or :motion. The headsman was then ordered to do his duty, and the criminal was delivered up to him. Having been stripped to the waist, the man was bound and made to kneel before the block, to which he was also fastened firmly; durin; the whole of these preparations the criminal exhibited the sante stolid indifference he load shown through all the stages of his trial. The moonent they were completed, the executioner severed the head front the body with one blow of the heavy axe. To tlmse without the walls the time of the execution was only knoovn by the tolling of the prison bell from the moment the criminal was brought out till the axe descended. The body was placed in a plain coffin, and interred without any religious rites in the neighbouring burial-ground. A written placard posted in the entrance of the districtcourt during the day was all the notice the public received tithe last solemn act of justice. The Gazette of the tome evening gave, under the title of " warning," a brief statement of the crime (which was committed on the fith of March, 1819) and an extract from the sentence, with a note stating that "it has been this day executed."