The last such case was when Leons Rusiņš killed his ex-wife after a long pursuit. It should be noted here that Kaspars Petrovs, the murderer of 38 old men, and the murderers of the four children of the Gulbene kindergarten are also still serving their sentences in life imprisonment.
In ancient times with torment
The death penalty as the highest measure of punishment has been known since the first days of mankind, but before the appearance of laws, the killing of criminals was carried out on the basis of customs and unwritten rules. In the first collections of laws that have come down to the present day, such as the laws of the Babylonian ruler Hammurabi, the laws of Manu in India, and the laws of Dracont in Greece, as well as in ancient Rome, provided for a very wide list of offenses corresponding to this punishment. Already at that time, it was believed that the death penalty should also serve as a warning, so they tried to make their execution frightening, painful and public. The methods were countless, and hanging or beheading were actually the most humane of all. One can only imagine the torments endured by people who, for example, were given to be slaughtered by an elephant, burned in the belly of a metal bull, crucified, stoned, skinned alive, impaled, poured molten lead down their throats, hung by the ribs, boiled in oil, torn out gutted or torn to pieces on the wheel of torture.
Even about smoking
In certain countries, the death penalty could also be earned for supposedly minor crimes, such as theft or insulting a person of high birth. For example, the French laws of 1794 provided for the death penalty for 115 different offenses, but in the time of Peter I in Russia death was threatened in 200 cases, including smoking and tobacco trading.
However, active opposition to this type of punishment began in the 16th century, at the same time as the advent of humanism, however, humanists also believed that it could be preserved for the commission of intentional murder. As a result, already in the 18th century, in many European countries, the death penalty began to be imposed only for particularly serious crimes – murder, arson, robbery and treason.
Death penalty in the USSR
Until the end of the fifties, no one even kept a record of people sentenced to death in the USSR, because after the Bolshevik coup and during Stalin’s repressions, it was impossible – people were often killed without any trial.
In fact, only after the Criminal Code adopted in 1961 under Nikita Khrushchev and the decree of the Supreme Council in 1962, some order was introduced. In this decree, the death penalty was imposed not only for murder, but also for endangering the life of a militia officer, rape, bribery and large-scale currency speculation.
However, after looking at the statistics on the death sentences handed down in Latvia from 1963 to 1991, it should be concluded that they were actually given to criminals whose crimes were against life. According to the data of the study “Yes or no to the death penalty” by the former head of the Prisons Administration, Stanislav Polkšanas, it can be seen that 111 persons were sentenced to and executed the death penalty in Latvia during the mentioned period.
During this period, only one woman was sentenced to death in Latvia (she was not carried out), although there were several cases when women brutally beat men.
Also a court martial
There is no precise information about those sentenced to death, whose cases were investigated by the State Security Committee or the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Baltic War Region at that time, because they were examined by a military tribunal. It is only known that 25 people were sentenced to death in this tribunal for treason between 1960 and 1991, and the last such case occurred in 1973.
In some cases, the death penalty has also been imposed for a crime for which nowadays only ten years of imprisonment can be received. This can be explained by the fact that in the times of the USSR there was a term in the legislation – a particularly dangerous recidivist, which was applied by a court decision to a person who had been punished at least three or four times. When a recidivist appeared before the court, he was automatically given the heaviest punishment provided for in the relevant article for the specific crime committed.
With a bullet in the back of the head
In Latvia, however, until 1991, death sentences were not carried out and all those convicted were taken to Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, where they were carried out in a specially arranged place by representatives of a special unit. It happened very simply – by shooting a bullet in the back of the head.
After regaining independence, until the implementation of the moratorium announced by the President in 1993, several death sentences were carried out in specially equipped rooms in the Riga Central Prison. Even after the introduction of the moratorium, several judges have sentenced criminals to death, because this type of punishment was not abolished in the then Criminal Code for a few years.
Latvia’s most famous murderers
The crimes committed by the “murderers” are quite similar, they are mostly murders and rapes committed for the purpose of robbery or under the influence of alcohol, but there are also persons who have written their names in the criminal history of Latvia.
In 1966, three members of the famous Nadzis gang – Ivars Nadzis, Žanis Filipovič and Livija Hoffmann – were sentenced to death. Together with other accomplices, they committed two murders, several robbery attacks and thefts.
The victims were mostly sales staff and dental technicians. Hoffmann did not kill herself, but found victims and organized the work of the gang. She was not executed, but the leader of the gang went insane and spent 15 years until her death in medical institutions. “Law and Justice” already reported about Nadzisna’s gang.
In 1971, A. Oleškevičs and his accomplice A. Vangravs were sentenced to death – they led a gang that committed 175 thefts in five years, killed a taxi driver, raped and brutally killed one of their disobedient female accomplices.
In 1980, Stanislavs Rogaļevs was convicted, who is considered to be the most cruel maniacal murderer of Latvia’s Soviet times, who has almost 20 attacks on women and nine killed victims on his conscience – in terms of numbers, he was surpassed only by the maniac of recent times, the old-fashioned strangler Kaspars Petrovs.
Rogalevs started drinking alcohol as a teenager, but after being imprisoned he was allegedly sexually abused because of his attractive appearance. During the commission of the crimes, he sadistically tortured women, deriving pleasure from it, and several times satisfied his sexual desires with the already killed victim. While murdering, he did not forget the material side either, stealing the victims’ jewels and clothes.
In 1985, a certain S. Janovič, who can be considered a worthy follower of Rogalev, was executed – he raped 15 women over several years and killed four of them.
He grew up in a family where his father and mother regularly bathed. Already at school, Janović liked to torment girls, and he was punished for the first time at the age of 15 for raping a 14-year-old girl.
Other capital crimes are similar, with fewer victims. It is very likely that in our day many of them would be declared unaccountable and sent to psychiatric institutions for forced treatment, but at that time dissidents of the Soviet government usually went there.
A weapon of dictatorial power
Currently, the death penalty is imposed and carried out mostly in countries with authoritarian regimes, and it also happens right here in neighboring Belarus. In Iran, ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, 94 people were executed in January and February this year alone.
In addition, in Iran, death is not only a threat for murder or rape, in May two people were sentenced to death for blaspheming the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad. In 2022, no one was punished for the death of the young woman who was beaten to death by the morality police (she was wearing a headscarf incorrectly), but many protesters were sentenced to death.
The exception in terms of the death penalty is the United States, known as the citadel of democracy, where it is still carried out in several states. In the countries of the European Union, such a measure of punishment does not exist.
It should also be noted that during the investigation of Rogalev’s crimes, a young man was sentenced to death due to a gross mistake of the militia or even a deliberate act, who, as it turned out later, was innocent. This possibility of error is also one of the main reasons why the death penalty was gradually abolished in many countries, and there is not the slightest reason to think that it could be restored in civilized countries.
Death record holders
According to Amnesty International, Iran carries out the second highest number of executions in the world, behind only China, for which no exact data is available. In 2022, Iran hanged 75% more people than the previous year – at least 582 convicts, which is the highest number of executions in this country since 2015.
2024-01-07 04:07:00
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