Capital Punishment in the Navy Court in Gdynia in 1945–1955

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present, in a statistical way, the death sentences which were adjudicated by judges of the Navy Court in Gdynia from 1945 to 1955. The article is concerned with the number of death sentences given by the Navy Court in Gdynia during that period. The author considers men under the sentence of death who were executed and those ones whose sentences were changed, the functioning of the Navy Court on Gdynia since it is beginning (on 2nd May 1945) to 4th April 1955, when the Act of reforming of military courts was introduced. During that period, 45 death penalties were adjudicated and 10 people were executed according to them. In the beginning of the article, the profiles of 14 judges who adjudicated the cases in which capital punishment was imposed are presented. The author presents the number of death sentences which eachjudge adjudicated. Next, the number of death sentences for every year of this period is shown. The reasons for the sentences, according to their legal justification, and the executions themselves are discussed here. The trials and appeal procedures are also shown. The article concludes with a figure which includes all death sentences which were adjudicated, along with their legal justifications and further procedural history if they were changed on appeal.