Lagos, which was the city that witnessed the last death sentence for a civilian, will mark, on 30 June, the 150th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Death Penalty, holding a commemorative session with the institutional support of the Assembly of Republic.
Lagos was the scene of the last sentence, in the context of civil justice, to the death penalty in Portugal. The year was 1846. 21 years later, in the reign of D. Luís, more precisely on July 1, 1867, the letter of law that dictated the abolition of the Death Penalty for all civil crimes in Portugal would be published, a decision that placed the country in a pioneering position in the European context.
Later, in 1870, this abolition would be extended to all overseas colonies, and in 1900, abolition was carried out for all crimes, including military ones.
The Death Penalty would only be readmitted for crimes of treason during the period of the First World War, with the last official execution within the Portuguese army having taken place in France in 1917.
“The Abolition of the Death Penalty represented a civilizational advance and a milestone in the process of protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms that deserves to be highlighted, remembered and understood by all citizens”, stresses the City Council of Lagos.
It is in this context that the Municipality of Lagos promotes a commemorative session that has the institutional support of the Assembly of the Republic and the collaboration of various State bodies, which have made themselves available to provide access to essential documentary sources to reconstitute and understand the chronology associated with this theme.
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