Capital punishment is a long unused form of punishment in Brazil. Its last recorded use was in 1876. Although virtually abolished, it is still possible during wartime, according to the Article 5, XLVII, "a", of the Federal Constitution. Brazil is the most populous country in the world that does not retain the death penalty in practice (Mexico is the most populous to have abolished it entirely). It is also one of seven countries to have abolished capital punishment for ordinary crimes only. History The last execution carried out in Brazil was that of Francisco, an enslaved man, in Pilar, Alagoas on April 28, 1876. The last execution of a free man was, according to official records, of José Pereira de Sousa, in Santa Luzia, Goiás. He was hanged on October 30, 1861. The last execution of a woman, as far as can be established, was Peregrina, one of slaves of Rosa Cassange in Sabará, MG, executed by hanging April 14, 1858 (some sources quote April 13, 1858), by the Province of Minas Gerais. The executioner was the slave Fortunato José. It was later discovered that Peregrina was innocent. Until the final years of the Brazilian Empire, defendants were still condemned to death despite the fact that Emperor Pedro II of Brazil commuted all death sentences passed after 1876, for both free men and slaves. However, the death sentence was only fully abolished for common crimes after the proclamation of the Republic in 1889. It was not abolished for certain military offenses in wartime. The 1937 Constitution, which ruled the country during Getúlio Vargas' Estado Novo dictatorship, made it possible for the Justice to sentence prisoners to death for crimes beyond military offenses in wartime. According to popular belief, integralist writer Gerardo Mello Mourão would have been sentenced to death in 1942 under the accusation of committing espionage for the Axis powers. As he later said in an interview, he was sentenced to life imprisonment during that time. He claims to have "never been sentenced to death as the pundits of history and bad faith insinuate". As a matter of fact, there are no records of an execution taking place during the period of time in which this Constitution ruled, which lasted until 1946. From 1969 to 1978, during the military dictatorship, execution once again became available as a form of punishment for political crimes which resulted in death. As such,