Johann Trnka (21 March 1912 – 24 March 1950) was a convicted murderer who was the last person to be

sentenced to death 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 ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

and executed in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Crime

In order to steal radio sets, Johann Trnka posed as a painter in 1946 and thus gained access to the apartments of two elderly women in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, whom he attacked, robbed, and then murdered. Trnka was charged with these robbery murders. The trial took place under the presidency of Regional Court President Otto Nahrhaft in the Regional Court for Criminal Matters Vienna, the "Grey House". Trnka was sentenced to death for double murder and was executed via

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

on 24 March 1950, at the execution site of the "Grey House", in Vienna. The executioner was a cinema assistant who had already been the executioner at executions on the strangulation gallows during the

Ständestaat The Federal State of Austria (; colloquially known as the "") was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the conservative, nationalist, corporatist, fascist and Catholic Fatherla ...

Legacy

Trnka's conviction for murder was carried out under Austrian law of the Second Republic. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, capital punishment had been declared permissible in Austria in ordinary proceedings for murder, but was once more deleted from the civil codes in 1950 and retained only in military law. Trnka's execution was the 31st and last of a person sentenced to death by an Austrian court in the postwar period. On 7 February 1968, the National Council unanimously decided to remove from the Constitution the possibility of creating summary courts or other forms of exceptional jurisdiction. Article 85 of the Federal Constitution has since read, "The death penalty is abolished."Die Geschichte der Todesstrafe in Österreich

References

Bibliography

* Anna Ehrlich: „Vom Ende des Schreckens bis heute – Die Bewältigung der Vergangenheit“, in: ''Hexen, Mörder, Henker – Die Kriminalgeschichte Österreichs vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart''. Wien 2006, S. 229. * „... wird mit dem Tode bestraft!“, in: ''Öffentliche Sicherheit'' 5–6/10, Forum Justizgeschichte, S. 30 f.

(PDF; 155 kB) Online-Ressource).

External links

„Letzte Hinrichtung heute vor 60 Jahren“, wien.orf.at

* ttps://www.welt.de/geschichte/article176835031/Todesstrafe-in-Oesterreich-Tod-am-Wiener-Wuergegalgen-Was-fuer-eine-Mordsgaudi.html#cs-lazy-picture-placeholder-01c4eedaca.png Photoof the strangulation gallows, which was also used for the execution of Johann Trnka {{DEFAULTSORT:Trnka, Johann 1912 births 1950 deaths 20th-century executions by Austria Austrian people convicted of murder Executed Austrian people Robbers People executed for murder People convicted of murder by Austria People executed by Austria by hanging

Crime

Legacy

See also

References

Bibliography

External links