Agreed PolicyGovernment, Justice and Public Order
Death Penalty
Restore Europe accepts the traditional legitimacy of capital punishment in principle, reserved for exceptional cases involving the gravest crimes.
Policy catalogueGovernment, Justice and Public Order
Agreed PolicyCapital Punishment for Aggravated Sexual Crimes
The death penalty may be legally available, but not mandatory, for the most aggravated forms of rape and child sexual abuse.
Position
Restore Europe places exceptionally aggravated sexual crimes within the category of offences that may qualify for capital punishment, subject to the same unusually strict procedural and evidentiary safeguards as other capital cases.
Policy
- Potentially qualifying cases include aggravated rape involving exceptional brutality, repeated or serial rape, rape involving kidnapping or torture, aggravated sexual abuse of children, systematic abuse of multiple children and organized sexual exploitation in exceptionally grave circumstances.
- A full and fair criminal trial is mandatory.
- The death penalty may not be imposed where serious residual doubt remains about guilt.
- Require meaningful appellate review and review of materially exculpatory new evidence before execution.
- Use corroborating and forensic evidence wherever reasonably obtainable; weak or uncertain proof must never support a death sentence.
- Keep life imprisonment available even where an offence technically qualifies for capital punishment.
- No execution of minors.
Implementation note
Implementation note
This expands the catalogue's existing capital-punishment position beyond homicide-based offences. It remains an explicit departure from the contemporary abolitionist position of the Catholic Catechism. Capital punishment is prohibited across the current Council of Europe system, including under Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR for states bound by it, so implementation would require major legal and treaty change.
Manifesto basis
Search terms
- death penalty
- capital punishment
- aggravated rape
- child sexual abuse
- sexual violence
- evidentiary threshold
- life imprisonment
Last updated .
Related positions
- Agreed PolicyGovernment, Justice and Public Order
Criminal Sentencing
Punishment should be proportionate to gravity and culpability, protect society, provide restitution where possible and pursue rehabilitation where realistic.
- Agreed PolicyGovernment, Justice and Public Order
Prisons, Punishment and Rehabilitation
Proportionate punishment, protection of society, restitution where possible, and serious rehabilitation aimed at repentance and reintegration.
Every question in this catalogue carries a position. Entries marked Derived follow the direction of the manifesto without their implementation being fixed, and several name the legal or treaty change they would require. Positions are revised as the movement decides; the version and date above say which text you are reading.