Capital punishment in Russia
overview of the capital punishment in Russia
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Russia but is not used due to a moratorium and no death sentences or executions have been carried out since 2 August 1996 execution of serial killer Sergey Golovkin. Russia has had an implicit moratorium in place since one was established by President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, and explicitly established by the Constitutional Court of Russia in 1999 and reaffirmed in 2009.
History
Medieval Russia
Ibn Fadlan who had contact with the Rus' around 921 reported that they executed thieves by hanging.
In medieval Russia, capital punishment was relatively rare and was even banned in many, if not most, Russian principalities. The Russkaya Pravda, created in the early 11th century, did not prescribe the death penalty, instead permitting blood feuds, a practice subsequently abolished by Yaroslav's sons.
One of the first legal documents resembling a modern penal code was enacted in 1398, which mentioned a single capital crime: a theft performed after two prior convictions (an early precursor to the current three-strikes laws existing in several U.S. states). The Sudebnik of 1497 extends this list significantly, mentioning three specialized theft instances (those committed in a church, stealing a horse, or, as before, with two prior "strikes"), as well as arson and treason. The trend to increase the number of capital crimes continued: in 1649, this list included 63 crimes, a figure that nearly doubled during the reign of Peter I. The methods of execution were extremely cruel by modern standards and included drowning, burying alive, and forcing liquid metal into the throat.
Tsarist Russia
During the reign of Alexis of Russia (1645–1676), 7,000 executions occurred solely for counterfeiting coins.
In 1698, Peter I executed 1,166 participants of the streltsy uprising.
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