Capital punishment, sometimes known as the death penalty, is the execution of a person by a government after they have been found guilty of a crime. Most states of Vexillium have included some form of capital punishment in their legal system at some point, although in modern times, a number of states have ended its use.
Status of capital punishment
Capital punishment exists, and is used
(Countries where capital punishment forms a normal and functioning part of the criminal justice system)
Allacoa — employs capital punishment for particularly brutal crimes. Before the Republic stabilized in 301-302, a unwieldy patchwork of tribal justice systems operated in the nation, and capital punishment was frequently used for crimes such as murder, rape, armed robbery, incest, and kidnapping.
Ansonia — employs capital punishment.
Bowdani — employs capital punishment, believing that it reduces criminal offending.
Burovia — operates a strict policy known as "three strikes and you're out", meaning that people convicted of a serious crime three times are given the death penalty.- Djeriga — employs capital punishment.
- Listonia — employs capital punishment.
- Lysonia — employs capital punishment. So far it has proven to use the firing squad more then any other traditional form of execution.
- Mari'im — makes fairly frequent use of capital punishment. The death penalty cannot be applied by the courts, however — if a criminal is found guilty of a serious crime, then the question of the death penalty will be raised at the next Community Meeting of the place where the crime took place. If a majority of attendees at the Meeting believe that execution is warranted, the criminal will be shot by firing squad. The practice of consulting the community over the death penalty is an old custom in Mari'im.
- Neoliliana — uses the death penalty. There is a mandatory waiting period of one year before executions are carried out, allowing for appeals.
- Ordland — possesses (and sometimes uses) the death penalty, although the circumstances in which it may be applied are limited by the constitution. The death penalty may only be given to a criminal who has confessed to a serious crime — it cannot be given to someone who denies committing a crime, even if a court finds them guilty.
- Phenixia — no longer a part of the penal system under the last republic, capital punishment has been reintroduced under the sole consulship of Pantaleon Bonhomme for a growing catalogue of crimes including murder, kidnapping, arson, rape, treason, desertion from the armed forces, and violating appellations controlées by manufacturing cheap imitations of genuine Phenixian cheese and wine.
- Rovens — death penalty remains part of the legal system. Also in effect in areas controlled by the Pataki communists, where it is believed to be frequently employed.
- Sempervirens — employs capital punishment.
- South Dignania — employs capital punishment regularly for a litany of offenses, including treason, espionage, murder, desertion, all violent crimes, embezzlement, and capitalistic practices. Executions are nearly always public and take the form either of a firing squad or a single bullet to the back of the head.
- St. Samuel — employs capital punishment and is regularly used for those found guilty of murder, rape and repeat offenders.
- Xochimechatl — has no centralised legal code, with law being created and enforced by various local authorities and the Order of Calacoayan (an armed religious group). At present, few of the various city and district councils sanction capital punishment, and those which do never actually employ it. The Order of Calacoayan, however, employs the death penalty wherever it sees fit.
- Zartania — one of the more notable users of capital punishment in the world, having large numbers of executions each year. Crimes for which the death penalty may be imposed are treason, crimes against the government or the king, multiple murder, murder in the commission of a crime, and murder of a member of the police or military. Unlike many other countries with the death penalty, Zartania still uses traditional methods of execution such as hanging.
Capital punishment exists, but is never or almost never used
(Countries which theoretically allow for capital punishment, but where it is never actually used, or where it can only be used in certain rare situations such as wartime or martial law)
- Afrazure — has the death penalty as part of the criminal code inherited from the old Commercial Empire, but it has not been carried out or imposed under the Altlandic protectorate.
- Albion-Merité — has the death penalty, but only enforces it for the most severe crimes against the empire, including treason, espionage, and regicide.
- Feniz — has the death penalty as part of its legal code, but it has not yet been used.
- Lendosa — legal codes make provision for capital punishment, but only under the local equivalent of emergency rule. Under these circumstances, the authorities are given the option of applying the death penalty for any crime which would ordinarily result in a prison sentence.
- Listonian Free State — the death penalty is applied by judicial discretion in two circumstances only: for murders with aggravating circumstances and which also have certainty of DNA evidence linking the convicted party to the crime and treason against the State.
- North Dignania — The death penalty is legal in North Dignania, but is only rarely used.
- Porto Capital — death penalty is legal in Porto Capital, but only during wartime for crimes such as treason.
- Rosardan — uses the death penalty rarely.
- Utania — though legal for Imperial authorities under the Guwimithian Empire, the death penalty was not available to semi-autonomous provincial authorities, and this fact was inherited by Utania's state governments. With the penalty still tacitly on the books, Nystonia's state government gave itself that right. Though the Peoples-lead national government immediately threatened to overturn this, a revolt by Utani, who noted the ultimate penalty was available under the Utani Empire, succeeded in staying the government's hand. A gentlemen's agreement was reached by President Hope in which the state government would not execute anyone it sentenced to death in return for a wider debate on the subject, though it seems this debate has been quietly shelved by the President. This detente will not last with the Nationalist Prime Minister having vowed to introduce a Parliamentary debate on the matter. While no one has yet been executed, the Nystonian state courts have been sentencing to death numerous criminals.
- Wesmerité — capital punishment remains on the books for three crimes: 1. Crimes against the people and the state (read Treason & Espionage) 2. Crime of being a leader of a criminal organization (read a major Gang Leader, part of anti-gang laws of 304) 3. Crime of mass murder (read multiple murders of the first degree). These punishments have rarely been used due to the very few cases that apply and Judges' reluctance to use this extream measure available to them.
- Whiland — capital punishment exists solely for the crime of treason. It has never been used.
Capital punishment does not exist
(Countries where there is no legal provision for capital punishment)
- Aethelnia — does not employ capital punishment. Does not extradite toCapital punishment nations.
- Altland — in accordance with the legal force given to custom, capital punishment has been abolished de facto by over a hundred years of disuse.
- Caledon — abolished the death penalty in 303 AP. No executions had been carried out since King James VI came to power at the start of 301 AP.
- Cimera — does not employ capital punishment.
- Cruisana — does not employ capital punishment, and has not done so for over a century. A bill explicitly forbidding capital punishment was signed into law in 301 AP.
- Caboteniasa — does not employ capital punishment.
- Davenport — abolished capital punishment in 260 AP.
- Islandia — does not employ capital punishment.
- Lamb's Cove — does not employ capital punishment. Also, will not extradite suspects to any country that does employ capital punishment, unless such penalty is waived in that case.
- Shaelia — does not employ capital punishment. Will not extradite to nations that do employ the death penalty unless the condition is waived.
- Solelhada — does not employ capital punishment.
- Somery — does not employ capital punishment, which is forbidden by its "Stathel Law" (constitution).
- Tak — under Bowdani rule capital punishment was legally employable, but in the autonomous province of Tak this sentence was never given. According to the constitution that was adopted after the country's unilateral independence in 308 AP, the possibility of capital punishment does not exist in Tak.
- TDCorp — does not employ capital punishment.
- Trinia — does not employ capital punishment.
- United Territories — does not employ capital punishment.
- Vingarmark — does not employ capital punishment.
