Editing Execution by firing squad (section)

===Finland===
[[File:Rättvisa skipas.jpg|thumb|Two [[Red Guards (Finland)|Red Guard]] members in front of a firing squad in [[Varkaus]] after the 1918 [[Finnish Civil War]]]]
[[File:Same Soviet Infiltrator facing firing squad.jpeg|thumb|right|Execution of a Soviet infiltrator by a [[Finland|Finnish]] firing squad during the [[Continuation War]], 1941–1944]]
The death penalty was widely used during and after the [[Finnish Civil War]] (January–May 1918); some 9,700 Finns and an unknown number of Russian volunteers on the Red side were executed during the war or in its aftermath.<ref>[http://vesta.narc.fi/cgi-bin/db2www/sotasurmaetusivu/stat2 War Victims of Finland 1914–1922] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310022523/http://vesta.narc.fi/cgi-bin/db2www/sotasurmaetusivu/stat2 |date=2015-03-10 }} at the Finnish National Archives</ref> Most executions were carried out by firing squads after the sentences were given by [[Extra-judicial killing|illegal or semi-legal]] [[Court-martial|courts martial]]. Only some 250 persons were sentenced to death in courts acting on legal authority.<ref name="Yliopistolehti 1995">{{Cite web|url=https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/yliopisto-lehti|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070320104934/http://yliopistolehti.helsinki.fi/yl14art.htm|url-status=dead|title=Yliopisto-lehti|date=June 6, 2016|archivedate=March 20, 2007|website=Helsingin yliopisto}}</ref>

During [[World War II]] some 500 persons were executed, half of them condemned spies. The usual causes for death penalty for [[Finnish citizen]]s were [[treason]] and [[high treason]] (and to a lesser extent cowardice and [[disobedience]], applicable for military personnel). Almost all cases of capital punishment were tried by court-martial. Usually the executions were carried out by the regimental military police platoon, or by the local military police in the case of spies. One Finn, [[Toivo Koljonen]], was executed for a civilian crime (six murders). Most executions occurred in 1941 and during the Soviet Summer Offensive in 1944. The last death sentences were given in 1945 for murder, but later commuted to life imprisonment.<ref name="Yliopistolehti 1995"/>

The death penalty was abolished by Finnish law in 1949 for crimes committed during peacetime, and in 1972 for all crimes.<ref>[http://www.stat.fi/tup/tietoaika/tilaajat/ta-09-01-kuol.html ''Kuolemantuomio kuolemantuomiolle''] at Statistics Finland (in Finnish)</ref> Finland is party to the Optional protocol of the [[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]], forbidding the use of the death penalty in all circumstances.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.finlex.fi/fi/sopimukset/sopsviite/1976/19760007?search%5Btype%5D=pika&search%5Bpika%5D=covenant+on+human+rights|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201033547/http://www.finlex.fi/fi/sopimukset/sopsviite/1976/19760007?search%5Btype%5D=pika&search%5Bpika%5D=covenant+on+human+rights|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 1, 2017|title=FINLEX ® – Valtiosopimukset viitetietokanta: 7/1976|website=Finlex.fi|access-date=23 November 2017}}</ref>