The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain
On the 13th August 1964, Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were hanged, due to their conviction for the murder of a man named John West at his home in Cumbria, during a robbery that had happened four months before. Both were hung at 8am, on the same day, Evans in Strangeways Prison, and Allen in Walton Prison in Liverpool.[1] These were the last Britons to die, legally, by capital punishment. Whilst evidently an enormous decision for the country, the debate raged in mid-Victorian Britain, with the intensity unlike that in the mid-twentieth century: there were at least eight occasions between 1840 and 1969 when the Commons voted on measures to abolish the death penalty.[2]
The debate raged on, with E. Roy Calvert, a young Quaker, and secretary of the National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty (est. 1925),[3] wrote the first dispassionate and scientific argument for total abolition in 1925.[4] He declared that “… the death penalty was not only wrong but that it was ineffective and could even stand in the way of justice.”[5] The 20th Century was considered a more modern era, meaning that ancient and harmful practices should no longer be tolerated by the state, which was a powerful argument for the time. However, these urgings had been rumbling on for some time, and still had a way to go until the 1960s. Executions were quickly becoming a thing of the past, with the last execution for stealing cattle in 1820, capital punishment for burglary, robbery and arson ended in 1835, and public executions ending in 1868,[6] meaning that it took nearly 100 years to end executions entirely following the end of public killings. Furthermore, in 1908, the death sentence ended for children under 16, and the age was raised to over 18 in 1933,[7] suggesting that state killings were fast becoming a thing of history.
There was a strong suggestion that life imprisonment should be the alternative to the death penalty,[8] coupled with a desire to impose firm sentences, but it appeared that long sentences should be subject to review.[9] The Bill to end the death penalty for murder was introduced on 4th December 1964 and reached the Statute Book on 2nd November 1965.[10]This Murder Act was passed into law on the assumption that the death penalty would be suspended for five years, however Parliament reaffirmed the vote in 1969, permanently abolishing the death penalty in England, Scotland and Wales (with Northern Ireland following suit in 1973).[11]
This was a historic event in penal reform, meaning that the hangman’s noose was consigned to the museum along with the thumbscrew,[12] however, capital punishment was still technically on the books for espionage, treason and piracy until a total abolition in 1998.[13]
[1] Steve Crawshaw, “The last Britons to hang,” The World Today vol.70, no.4 (2014): 38.
[2] Randall McGowen, “History, Culture and the Death Penalty: The British Debates, 1840-70,” Historical Reflections vol.29, no.2 (2003): 229.
[3] Frank Dawtry, “The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain,” The British Journal of Criminology vol.6, no.2 (1966): 188.
[4] L. J. Blom-Cooper, “Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965,” The Modern Law Review vol.29, no.2 (1966): 184.
[5] Frank Dawtry, “The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain,” The British Journal of Criminology vol.6, no.2 (1966): 188.
[6] Frank Dawtry, “The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain,” The British Journal of Criminology vol.6, no.2 (1966): 187.
[7] Frank Dawtry, “The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain,” The British Journal of Criminology vol.6, no.2 (1966): 188.
[8] Frank Dawtry, “The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain,” The British Journal of Criminology vol.6, no.2 (1966): 185.
[9] Frank Dawtry, “The Abolition of the Death Penalty in Britain,” The British Journal of Criminology vol.6, no.2 (1966): 186.
[10] L. J. Blom-Cooper, “Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965,” The Modern Law Review vol.29, no.2 (1966): 184.
[11] Steve Crawshaw, “The last Britons to hang,” The World Today vol.70, no.4 (2014): 38.
[12] L. J. Blom-Cooper, “Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965,” The Modern Law Review vol.29, no.2 (1966): 186.
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