The last executions in Finland occurred on this date in 1944, claiming the lives of three Soviet spies who had been parachuted behind Finnish lines.
I have been unable to locate the names of these men. They’re invariably presented simply in connection with — or as the denouement following — the September 2 execution of Finnish deserter Olavi Laiho.
The next morning (Russian link), Finland announced its disengagement from its problematic German alliance, an arrangement brokered by the western Allies who wanted to keep Finland democratic and non-communist despite sitting in Russia’s back yard and joining the wrong team in World War II. The Soviet Union immediately redeployed its forces away from the Finnish theater; a formal armistice was signed before September was out and prisoner transfers began in October.
Finland abolished the death penalty for all peacetime crimes in 1949, for all crimes full stop in 1972, and wrote the abolition into its constitution in 2000.
On this day..
- 1803: John Hatfield, Beauty of Buttermere deceiver
- 1964: Mohamed Chabani
- 2016: Mir Quasem Ali
- 1653: Sakura Sogoro, righteous peasant
- 1806: John Docke Rouvelett, malicious prosecutor
- 1430: La Pierronne, visionary
- 2,500 days: Still hanging around
- 1924: Patrick Mahon, for the Crumbles Murder
- 1821: Timothy Bennett, duelist
- 1875: Six in Fort Smith under Hanging Judge Isaac Parker
- 1736: Both John Vernham and Joshua Harding survive a hanging
- 1918: Fanya Kaplan, Lenin's would-be assassin
- 2003: Paul Hill, anti-abortion martyr