Capital punishment in Chile is legally sanctioned, albeit with significant limitations. Since its abolition for civilian offenses in 2001, its application has been restricted to military personnel convicted of

war crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...

and

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...

committed during wartime. This places Chile among the seven countries globally that have abolished

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

solely for ordinary crimes. The method of execution in Chile is by shooting, with the last instance occurring on January 29, 1985, when two serial killers, Jorge Sagredo and Carlos Topp, were executed by

firing squad Firing may refer to: * Dismissal (employment), sudden loss of employment by termination * Firemaking, the act of starting a fire * Burning; see combustion * Shooting, specifically the discharge of firearms * Execution by firing squad, a method of ...

. Historical records indicate that between 1890 and 1967, 53 individuals were sentenced to death and subsequently executed, while many others had their sentences commuted. Chile has actively supported the United Nations Moratorium on the death penalty since 2007 and has consistently voted in its favor. Additionally, Chile is a signatory to the

Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, is a subsidiary agreement to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It was created on 15 D ...

, which aims for the global abolition of capital punishment. However, Chile has invoked a reservation under Article 2.1 of the treaty, permitting execution during wartime for the conviction of the most serious military-related crimes committed during such periods. The country signed the treaty on November 15, 2001, and ratified it on September 26, 2008.

References

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

Law of Chile {{capital-punishment-stub