Death penalty: translation
Capital punishment was part of the Dutch crimi nal justice administration until the late 19th century. Criticism of the death penalty—and of torture and corporal punishment in general during the Enlightenment led to a gradual humanization of criminal justice; branding as corporal punishment was abolished in 1854, and the death penalty was abolished in 1870. In military penal law, the death penalty is still in the statute books for cases of treason and de sertion in wartime. During World WarII, the death penalty was rein troduced for war crimes and collaboration with the German Occu pation. Between 1944 and 1947, several executions of persons condemned by military tribunals took place. Queen Juliana, how ever, postponed the signing of death sentences of war criminals dur ing the 1950s, and some of them were reprieved. The death penalty was forbidden by the constitution in 1983.