The death penalty may not be imposed: 1. For political crimes 2. When the conviction is based on presumptions 3. On women 4. On men older than seventy years 5. On persons whose extradition has been granted under such condition. In these cases and provided that the death penalty is commuted to deprivation of liberty, maximum imprisonment penalties will be applied.5 36. Article 175 of the Criminal Code regulated the crime of aggravated rape in the following terms: If with reason of or as a result of the rape, the offense resulted in death, the sentence of twenty to thirty years imprisonment shall be imposed. The death penalty will be sentenced if the victim is younger than ten years of age.6 37. By means of Decree 20-96, that came into force in May, 1996, this crime was modified in the following terms: If with reason of or as a result of the rape, the offense resulted in death, the sentence of thirty to fifty years imprisonment shall be imposed. The death penalty will be sentenced if the victim is younger than ten years of age.78 38. Despite being established in Guatemalan legislation, according to a Report from Amnesty International, the death penalty was rarely sentenced in Guatemala before the 1990s. Said Report indicates that four executions were carried out in 1982, and eleven more were carried out in 1983 under Emergency Decree 46-82, which was promulgated during the state of siege imposed by Efraín Ríos Montt.9 39. During the 1990s the Guatemalan State returned to the application of the death penalty. First by means of firing squad, according to Decree 234 of the Congress. Then, after Decree 234 was annulled by Decree 100-96 of November 1996, by applying lethal injection.10 The latter Decree established this new method of execution and regulated the procedure in its Article 7. 2. Petition for presidential pardon and annulment of Decree 159 of 1892 40. At the time of the events of this case, the last remedy available in the Guatemalan law to revoke the death penalty sentence was a petition for clemency or pardon, which was set forth by Decree 159 of the National Legislative Assembly of April 19, 1892. The petition for clemency provided the President of 5 Decree No. 17-73, Guatemala Criminal Code. 6 Decree No. 17-73, Guatemala Criminal Code. 7 Decree No. 17-73, Guatemala Criminal Code. 8 Decree No. 20-96, Congress of the Republic of Guatemala. 9 Amnesty International. The Return of the Death Penalty: Guatemala. March 1997; also see: IACHR, Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.63 doc.10, September 28, 1984, Guatemala, para. 9; IACHR, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Republic of Guatemala, Chapter II-Right to life, C. Executions decreed by the Court of Special Jurisdiction, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.61, Doc.47, October 3,1983. 10 Penalty. To that respect, Decree No. 100-96 of November 28, 1996, Law that Establishes the Procedure for the Execution of the Death 6