execution

Execution is the act of killing a person who has been sentenced to death by a court, carried out as the enforcement of that sentence. The concept is thus tied to the state's lawful use of capital punishment and differs from homicide in that it takes place in accordance with a judicial decision and according to established procedures. In Denmark, the death penalty in peacetime was abolished by statute in 1930, and the military death penalty was finally repealed in 1978. Execution therefore has no basis in current Danish law, and no form of execution can lawfully be carried out on Danish territory today.

The last execution under the ordinary criminal code took place in 1892. During and after the Second World War, the death penalty was temporarily reintroduced through special legislation aimed at traitors and war criminals, and the last execution in Denmark took place in 1950, when Ib Birkedal Hansen was shot. Historically, the methods of execution have varied and have included beheading, hanging and shooting, depending on the period and the legislation in force. The method used during the post-war reckoning was shooting.

Denmark has today ratified Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the death penalty in all circumstances, including in time of war. As a legal phenomenon, execution is therefore excluded under Danish law both in statute and by treaty.