Capital punishment in Brazil

Capital punishment is a long unused form of punishment in Brazil, last reported in 1876, not having been officially used since the proclamation of the Republic in 1889. Although virtually abolished, it is still possible during wartime, according to the Article 5, XLVII, "a", of the Federal Constitution.

The last execution carried out by Brazil was of the black slave Francisco, in Pilar, Alagoas on April 28, 1876, and the last execution of a free man was, according to official records, of José Pereira de Sousa, in Santa Luzia, Goiás. He was hanged October 30, 1861. The last execution of a woman, as far as can be established, was Peregrina, one of slaves of Rosa Cassange in Sabará, MG, executed by hanging April 14, 1858 (some sources quote April 13, 1858), by the Province of Minas Gerais. The executioner was the slave Fortunato José. It was later discovered that Peregrina was innocent.

Until the final years of the Brazilian Empire, defendants were still condemned to death despite the fact that Emperor Pedro II of Brazil commuted all death sentences in 1876, for both free men and slaves. However, the death sentence was only fully abolished for common crimes after the proclamation of the Republic in 1889. It was not abolished for certain military offenses in wartime.

The 1937 Constitution, which ruled the country during Getúlio Vargas' Estado Novo dictatorship, made it possible for the Justice to sentence prisoners to death for crimes beyond military offenses in wartime. According to popular belief, integralist writer Gerardo Mello Mourão would have been sentenced to death in 1942 under the accusation of committing espionage for the Axis powers. As he later said in an interview, he was sentenced to life imprisonment during that time. He claims to have "never been sentenced to death as the pundits of history and bad faith insinuate". As a matter of fact, there are no records of an execution taking place during the period of time in which this Constitution ruled, which lasted until 1946.

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