Lethal Gauntlet
This form of execution was in use in Serbia from 1804 to 1859. It was a novelty, copied from Austrian army practice, where it was applied as a disciplinary punishment for soldiers. In Serbia, however, it was also used in civilian courts as a criminal punishment.
The Gauntlet was a double file of men facing each other and armed with birch rods with which to strike a person who was made to run between them. The victim's hands were tied to rifle butts or to two pieces of wood and he/she was led through the file by two soldiers or two policemen, depending on whether the punishment was civil or military. When the victim became unable to walk, he/she was placed on a cart which was pulled through the gauntlet.
The severity and name of this punishment depended on the number of men in the file and the number of times the victim had to go through it. If the file had 300 or more men and if the victim was led through it twelve or more times in each direction (a total of 24 or more times), a total of 7,200 blows would be delivered, which meant almost certain death. Hence the name the lethal gauntlet (mrtva šiba).
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Judgement for a brigand (hajduk) in 1812:
„to run a lethal gauntlet through 500 men 24 times“ |
If the victim survived this number of blows, no further punishment was administered. In some cases, however, the judgment specified expressly that the victim was to be led through the gauntlet „until dead“ – two such judgments from 1839 have survived. If the file numbered fewer than 300 men or if fewer than 24 runs were made, such punishment was called the semi-lethal gauntlet and was considered a corporal rather than a capital punishment. For example, in a 1808 case, the death sentence for a brigand was commuted to a semi-lethal gauntlet: „to walk through 300 men 5 times [in each direction]“.
Those who survived the gauntlet (lethal or otherwise) were offered medical care: the splinters from the rods were extracted and their backs were treated with jakija (an ointment made of soap, brandy and eggs, used to treat wounds on horses’ backs), after which they would be wrapped in untanned sheep- or cattle-skins. The bloody splinters strewn around the place of execution were collected by the public, as they were believed to have healing powers.
In the beginning, the lethal gauntlet was a punishment not only for men, but for women and juveniles as well. In 1847 it was abolished for women and juveniles and replaced by other kinds of corporal punishment. Women were punished by up to one hundred blows with the kamd~ija, a three-tailed whip with a wooden handle, made of cord with knotted ends. Depending on their sex and age, juveniles were beaten with birch rods, wooden sticks or a kamd~ija, while children uner 16 were beaten with rozga (light wooden sticks). For male juveniles over 16, the lethal gauntlet was replaced by a “regulation gauntlet” (propisna šiba), whereby victims were led through a double file of men armed with birch rods, but for not more than six or nine times. For female juveniles over 16, the replacement was a beating with a kamd~ija, limited to 50 or 70 blows.
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Kamd~ija |
By the middle of the 19th century, opposition to punishment by gauntlet had developed in Serbian society. By law, all male citizens were required, if called upon, to take part in the administration of this punishment, on pain of a fine. In a show of civil disobedience, the city-dwellers refused to do so, which made it difficult for the police to find enough men to make up a proper gauntlet. As no similar opposition was evident among the rural population, it was proposed to mobilize the peasants instead or to man the gauntlets with soldiers. This was strongly resisted by a group of young civil servants, who had received their legal education abroad. In the end, on 6 May 1859, all forms of gauntlet, including the lethal one, were abolished and replaced by imprisonment.
Other forms of corporal punishment in Serbia consisted in a set number of blows with wooden sticks (for men), kamd~ija (for women) and rozga (for juveniles). All were abolished by law in 1873.
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Decree on the abolition of gauntlets, 1859
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