A brief past of the death punishment for officials for crimes committed out of profit

niepoprawni.pl 9 months ago

After regaining independence, the death punishment was introduced on 30 January 1920 for corrupt officials[1]. Work on the bill and its enactment were a consequence to the Legislative Sejm resolution adopted on 1 August 1919, together with the Act on the liability of military persons for crimes of profit. The resolution called on the government to make a akin project, in which the military model would besides include the death punishment for officials for crimes committed out of a desire for profit.

A short three-page bill provided for the death punishment for officials by firing for acts:

theft or embezzlement or participation in specified property, if it was entrusted to it in connection with the service or position;
fraud or participation in it - consisting in gaining the benefit of himself or a 3rd party, thereby harming others by misleading or maintaining in mistake by presenting false circumstances or twisting or concealing the true;
the request or acceptance of a gift or another property benefit or promise, given in order to violate his authoritative or service duties;
another authoritative offence committed out of a desire to profit, in violation of authoritative or authoritative duties (in the Russian and Prussian districts) or abuse of authoritative power, committed out of a desire to profit.

For these insignificant crimes, punishment for dense prisons from 4 to 15 could be mitigated.

For accepting or demanding a gift in connection with the settlement of authoritative cases, without the intention of prompting an authoritative to violate the rules, the punishment for only a dense prison conviction from 4 to 15 years and in case of insignificant cases from year to year 4.

For all the above offences, a fine which was little mild than the 1 provided for above could not be given. For trying the same punishment as for what you did. These crimes were crimes.

In addition to officials, civilian persons active in these crimes were equally responsible. The exception was to contribute to the detection or proof of crimes before the authorities found out about it - then specified persons were not punished.

People under 21 were removed from the bill.

In the event of the uncovering of responsibility unanimously by the court of first instance in the composition of 3 judges, the judgement became final upon publication.

The State Defence Council Regulation of 6 August 1920 [2] created the anticipation of subjecting these crimes to ad hoc courts. The Regulation was renewed on 16 February 1921 [3].

After a year, that law was replaced by a fresh 1 [4], the day after the Constitution was passed. She was practically the same. Only the dimension of penalties for civilians was relaxed - prison was threatened for participation, unless the non-official performed professionally - then shooting.

On 1 June 1923, this law was repealed [5]. These provisions were so in force for 2 and a half years.

During the work on the bill in the Sejm there was a heated debate (click to enlarge):

Legal circles commented on the bill rather critically - as follows (click to enlarge):

If you would like to deepen this interesting topic, I urge the improvement of Damian Szczepaniak: