Sanches de Castro (Dr. José Pereira)

He was a judge in Madeira. In 1855, while serving as a judge in the western district, he sentenced Manuel Joaquim Fernandes to the ultimate penalty for having murdered Gerardo Pedro from the parish of Porto do Moniz. We believe that this Fernandes was the last Madeiran to be sentenced to death by the courts, but we do not know if he was executed. Dr. Sanches de Castro published a short work entitled Observações sobre o contrato de colónia na Madeira (Funchal, 1857). See Colónia (Colony).