File No. 9524/1.
Minister O’Brien to
the Secretary of State.
American Legation,
Montevideo, September 26,
1907.
| No. 321. |
} |
| Uruguayan series. |
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith, in
duplicate and translation, copy of the law abolishing the death penalty
in Uruguay, passed by Congress on September 21 last.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Death Penalty.
law of abolition in civil and
military life—legislative power.
The Senate and House of Representatives of the
Oriental Republic of Uruguay, in general assembly, etc.,
decree:
- Article 1. The penalty of death
established by the penal code is abolished.
- Art. 2. In cases of abolition of
the death penalty, as set forth in the foregoing article,
the penalty of imprisonment for an indefinite time will be
imposed, the judges not being empowered in any case to fix
the term.
- The indefinite penalty will be, as a maximum, forty years,
and as a minimum, thirty years.
- Art. 3. At the end of thirty
years prisoners may solicit conditional liberty, which will
be accorded by the high court of justice after hearing the
reports of the director of the penal establishment in which
prisoner is an inmate and the order of the public ministry,
and after an examination of the records of the penitentiary
registers proving that, during the latter half of the
imprisonment, they have given positive proofs of good
conduct and moral correction.
- To grant conditional liberty four affirmative votes will
be necessary if the high court, or the tribunal sitting in
its place, should be composed of five members, and five
affirmative votes if it should be composed of six
members.
- The denial of conditional liberty does not deprive the
prisoner of the right of petition at another time.
- The dispositions of articles 94, 95, and 96 of the penal
code will govern those pardoned.
- The law of grace to which articles 788, 789, and 793 refer
in the military code, is substituted by conditional
liberation.
- Art. 4. The penalty of
imprisonment will substitute that of garrison established by
the military code, with the same effects attributed by that
law to that punishment. (Art. 790.)
- Art. 5. When the prison doctor
notes a change in the health of the prisoners, during the
solitary continuous confinement fixed in the sentence, he
will report it on the same day to the director of the
prison, who will discontinue the confinement, communicating
it to the judge of the case, it being under his
resolution.
- Art. 6. When the legal process
may have been delayed for more than a year the excess of
preventive detention will be computed day by day, unless the
delay is occasioned by the prisoner or he should be guilty
of bad conduct, in which
[Page 1086]
cases the judge, expressly declaring
such circumstances, will strictly apply article 37 of the
penal code.
- Art. 7. The dispositions of
article 6 will govern the cases already judged.
- Art. 8. All dispositions of the
civil and military codes opposed to the present law are
derogated.
- Art. 9. Communicate, etc.
Hall of sessions of the honorable house
of representatives, Montevideo, September 21,
1907.
- Antonio M. Rodriguez, President.
- Domingo Veracierto, Secretary.
[Untitled]
Ministry of the Interior,
Montevideo, September 23,
1907.
Fulfill, acknowledge receipt, communicate, publish, and insert in the
National Register.
