I have recently completed a paper on the abolition of the death penalty in Argentina for a comparative project on the  politics of the death penalty. The paper locates the abolition of the death penalty in Argentina in the context of the country’s processes of transitional justice over the course of the last three decades. Following the transition to democratic government in 1983, the abolition of the death penalty took place during two different stages and in two connected but distinct political contexts. First, in the immediate aftermath of the democratic transition the death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes as part of a broader set of institutional and legal reforms. Second, in 2008 the death penalty was fully abolished for all crimes for members of the armed forces in both peacetime and in war. The abolition was again part of a broader set of reforms of military jurisdiction that constituted the culmination of a drawn-out and contentious process since the early transitional period of imposing civilian control over the military in Argentina.

I have posted the draft paper on SSRN here.