Capital punishment in Poland

Capital punishment remained in Polish law until September 1, 1998, but from 1989 executions were suspended, the last one taking place one year earlier.

Since regaining independence in 1918, Polish law allowed the death penalty for murder and treason in time of peace, and a number of other offences during wartime.

Through a presidential decree in 1927, hanging became the main method of execution, with firing squad retained for soldiers or people who had committed crimes against state security.

Stefan Maciejowski [pl] served as the first civil executioner and was a well-known public figure until his firing for alcoholism.

For a number of years, criminal law in interwar Poland was considered less severe than in Western Europe; this was true for capital punishment as well.

Also former President of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig and gauleiter of Reichsgau Wartheland, SS officer Arthur Greiser was hanged in public in Poznań on July 14, 1946.

The archetypal method was shooting a single bullet up into the base of the skull from behind; among people executed that way was Witold Pilecki, a hero of Auschwitz.

The only exception was the case of Stanisław Wawrzecki, who was sentenced to death and hanged for economic crimes under pressure from communist leader Władysław Gomułka.

The method authorized for soldiers and people who committed crimes against state security remained the firing squad.

Halina Żurowska [pl], a former Home Army soldier, was executed by a single shot to the back of the head for espionage (almost certainly politically motivated charge) at Rakowiecka Prison in Warsaw.

[6] Today, most political circles are opposed to the idea of reintroducing the death penalty,[citation needed] although it has had support from some members of the former (2005–2007) right-wing government, namely former President Lech Kaczyński.

[7][8][9] The national-conservative League of Polish Families (LPR) and the agrarian Self-Defense (Samoobrona RP) also showed some support for the death penalty for a short period of time.

A poll by CBOS, a publicly funded Polish research institute, showed that 63% favored reinstating the death penalty.

Any person sentenced to death could write a plea for pardon and submit it to the President or, in the Polish People's Republic, to the Council of State.

Then prosecutor read the verdict and informed the condemned prisoner that the President / Council of State did not use the right to pardon and therefore the penalty would be executed.