Capital punishment is no longer applied in San Marino. The last execution was carried out in 1468, by hanging. San Marino is one of only two countries in the world to have carried out no executions since before 1800 - the other being Liechtenstein, where the last execution took place in 1785.
San Marino was the first country in the world to abolish the death penalty for ordinary crimes, in 1848; in 1865, it became the second country in the world (and the first in Europe) to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, following Venezuela in 1863. However, San Marino reinstated the death penalty 5 years later. It is one of only three countries to have abolished the death penalty for all crimes before 1900 - the third one being Costa Rica.
In 1989, it formally ratified Protocol 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which requires the complete abolition of the death penalty in peacetime.