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A reenactment of Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington's botched beheading in 1492
- "You brought this Obscurus into the city of New York in the hope of causing mass disruption, breaking the Statute of Secrecy and revealing the magical world — you are therefore guilty of a treasonous betrayal of your fellow wizards and are sentenced to death. Miss Goldstein, who has aided and abetted you — she receives the same sentence."
- —Gellert Grindelwald, posing as Percival Graves, sentences Newt Scamander and Porpentina Goldstein to death, in 1926[src]
Capital punishment is a state-sanctioned practise whereby a person is put to death as a punishment for having committed a serious crime; among them murder, treason, war crimes, and genocide.
History
Muggle world
Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington was executed by attempted beheading on 31 October,1492.[1]
Wizarding world
During 1692 and 1693 in the United States wizards and witches and No-Majs lost their lives in the Salem Witch Trials. Scourers acted to both turn in witches and wizards for rewards, and acted as judges during the trials. Member of the Scourers caught by the newly formed Magical Congress of the United States of America were also executed, but it is unknown the manner their deaths.[2]
In the 1920s the Magical Congress of the United States of America carried out the death penalty by means of strapping the condemned into a chair suspended over a pool of Death potion, which would kill the prisoner by encasing them in a sphere and burning them. Newt Scamander and Porpentina Goldstein were sentenced to be executed in the this fashion by Gellert Grindelwald disguised as Percival Graves, but escaped with the help of Pickett and Newt's Swooping Evil.[3]
In Wizarding Britain no execution of human criminals is known (save possibly for the loss of one's soul to the Dementor's Kiss) Beasts considered dangerous by the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures are executed by beheading. In the past Wizards were executed by Muggles by burning. However most of these people were in fact Muggles. Real wizards in Europe would escape by use of the Flame-Freezing Charm.
Behind the scenes
- The use of a chair in executions, as seen in the film inspired by Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, mirrors the real-world use of the electric chair as a method of execution by electrocution, still used today in the United States of America.
Appearances
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (film)
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay
- Pottermore
Notes and references
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 8 (The Deathday Party)
- ↑ Writing by J.K. Rowling: "Seventeenth Century and Beyond" at Pottermore
- ↑ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay, Scene 67
