La aplicación de la pena de muerte en el Reino de Galicia durante la Edad Moderna

Abstract

Although a great number of regal laws establishe the death penalty as punishment for certain crimes, an abundant juridical literature began to fix a series of doctrinal and moral principles and approaches to restrict the application of the capital punishment. The results of the study of the decisions of the Real Audience of Galicia among XVI and XVIII centuries seem to demonstrate that the judges of this high cort of the Monarchy were guided more by theoretical and practical doctrine, than by laws literality. That's why, with relationship to all the judged cases, those where the criminals were executed are very reduced. The judicial discretion mitigated the application of penal law, but it also served to the criminal politics of the Crown.