On April 15, 1999, Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty for crimes committed in peacetime.

On April 15, 1999, Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty for crimes committed in peacetime. On June 1, 1999 the death penalty was officially abolished in peacetime with the entry into force of Protocol 6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), concerning the abolition of capital punishment except in times of war or in imminence of war. 
The Criminal Law of Latvia envisages the death penalty for murder in especially aggravating circumstances, committed in wartime. Women and people below the age of 18 at the time when the crime was committed cannot be sentenced to death.
Draft laws on ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Protocol No. 13 to the ECHR have been submitted to parliament.
Then President Guntis Ulmanis imposed a moratorium on executions in September 1996. Seven people were condemned to death following the moratorium decree, but none were executed. The moratorium was maintained until the Latvian Parliament voted for abolition in 1999. The last execution was carried out in January 1996.
On December 18, 2008 Latvia co-sponsored and voted in favour of the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.