The Penal Code envisages the death penalty for murder...

The Penal Code envisages the death penalty for murder of relatives; kidnapping and child abuse; kidnapping of adults provoking death; murder of police. The death penalty is provided for under the military code for treason, espionage, and crimes against the sovereignty and security of the State. In June 1997, a bill calling for the abolition of the death penalty was defeated in the Senate by 22 votes to nineteen. The last death sentence in Chile was passed in July 1999. In recent years all death sentences have been commuted to life imprisonment. However proposals for the abolition of the death penalty presented in parliament in 1990 and 1996 were not approved. Since 1992 other proposals, including those for the increase of the number of offences punishable by death and a proposal to deprive the President of the constitutional right to grant pardon, have been presented. In Chile, the president has the authority to grant a stay of execution to individuals sentenced to death.