Om dödsstraffet

242

Dödsstraffets demoraliserande verkan. 242

fangen är motsträfvig, börjar sätta sig till motvärn emot skarprättaren och med våld måste qvarhållas på stupstockenl) under det denne fullgör sitt ohyggliga uppdrag, kan massan af åskådare lätt komma i raseri och ordningens upprätthållande äfventyras.

Den 25 Augusti 1864 afrättades i Stockholms län mördaren Adolf Åberg. Vid afrättningen hade han af någon anledning blifvit ursinnig och visat sig motsträfvig, sä att något lindrigare våld måst användas för att kunna verkställa exekutionen, hvilket

day will ever believe in the wholesale, open, broadca9t männer in whieh garotting and highwav robbery were carried ön. We do not now speak of those, whorn the mere wanton mischief of the crowd led to »bonnet» as they passed, or else to pluck their hats from off their heads and toss them over the mob, amid roars and shouts of laughter, as the came from all sides and went in all directions .... But even this lough play sinks into harmlessness beside the Open robbery and violence wich yesterday morning had its way virtually unchecked in Newgate-street. There were regular gängs, not so much in the crowd itself within the barriers as along the avenues which led to them, and these vagrants openly stopped, »bonneted», sometimes garrotted, and aluays plundered any person whose dress led them to think him worth the trouble .... Such were the open pastimes of the mob from davlight till near the hour of execution, when the great space around the prison seemed choked with its vast multitude. Literally, nearly 50,000 people were crammed between the walls of this wide tboroughfare». (Sedan exekutionen var förbi, anmärker tidningen) — »The impression, however, if any real impression it was, beyond that of mere cnriosity, did not last for long, and before the slight, slow vibrations of the body had well ended robbery and violence, loud laughing, oaths, ßgh-ting, obscene condtict and still möre filthy langage reigned round the gallows far and nean>. Härmed kan jemnföras följande yttrande af engelska tidningen Echo för den 25 Februari 1879 i anledning af mördaren Charles Peace's afrättning. »We shall be told once möre that the gallows is a yreat moral teacher and that it is a great deterrent from crime; but we fail to see the evidence in support of such an opinion, and we cannot be blind to a good deal of evidence which tends to show that the teaching of the galloivs is immoral and its effect attractive rather than deterrent. Kor weeks past this wretched criminal has been möre talked about, written about and read about than all the mo9t illustrious men in England to-gether. — Had the man been condemned by his Judge to a life-long im-prisonment, the excitement would have died away almost as soon as the prison doors had closed upon hirn».

1) Bonde-Ståndets Protokoll vid Riksdagen 1862-63. VI: p. 115. ni Karlskrona inträffade för någon tid sedan, att en till döden dömd person icke ville anamma den hel. Nattvarden och var så gensträfvig, att man måste släpa honom till afrättsplatsen med ok på axlarne».