Teodomiro Romeiro dos Santos, a militant of the Brazilian Revolutionary Communist Party, was sentenced to death under the accusation of shooting an Air Force sergeant, who died, and a Federal Police officer, who was injured. Santos, now a retired judge, is recognized as the only person sentenced to death during the Republican history of Brazil. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1971. There are no official records of executions taking place during the military rule. However, the regime was responsible for the extrajudicial killing of at least 300 of its opponents. Capital punishment for all non-military offences was abolished in Brazil by the 1988 Constitution. Currently, the death penalty may be applicable in Brazil only for military offenses such as treason, murder, genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and terrorism during wartime. The sole method prescribed by law is death by firing squad. The Military Penal Code advises that this penalty should be sentenced only in extreme cases, and that the president may grant a pardon for the convicted officer. However, Brazil has not engaged in any major armed conflict since the end of World War II. Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking country that still maintains the death penalty for some offenses. Law The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 expressly prohibits the usage of capital punishment by the penal justice system. However, death penalty may be applicable, according to international law, in case of a declared war, under the terms of Article 84, paragraph 19, of the Constitution. It also prohibits, in the same article that refers to the death penalty, the usage of life sentences, making Brazil one of the few countries which has abolished both life imprisonment and death penalty. According to the Brazilian Penal Code, a citizen cannot spend more than 40 continuous years incarcerated. Brazil is a State Party to the Protocol of the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty, which was ratified on August 13, 1996. According to international law, the "application of the death penalty in time of war pursuant to a conviction for a serious crime of a military nature committed during wartime" is admissible. Article 2, paragraph 1 of the United Nations Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Aiming at the Abolition of the Death Penalty, allows members to make a reservation in these terms, at the time of ratification or