High treason in the United Kingdom sentenced to be shot or hanged for this offence instead of for treason (one death sentence was commuted). Theodore Schurch was the last person to be put to death for treachery, in 1946. He was also the last person to be executed for a crime other than murder. Josef Jakobs, a German spy executed for treachery, was the last person to be executed in the Tower of London. The Treachery Act 1940 was suspended in February 1946, and was repealed in 1967. In June 1945 the Treason Act 1945 abolished the special rules of evidence and procedure formerly used in
Max Josef Metzger Metzger was tried by the German People’s Court. The Judge-President of the court, Roland Freisler, said that people like Metzger should be "eradicated." Metzger was sentenced to death and he was executed on 17 April 1944 in Brandenburg-Görden Prison. Thomas Merton was one influenced by the life of Max Josef Metzger. In his essay "A Martyr for Peace and Unity", he cites Metzger's example in dying for peace. In protesting Hitler's abuse of power, Metzger wrote that, "it is honorable to die for one's country, but still more honorable to die for righteousness and peace." Max Josef Metzger Max Josef