Capital Punishment The penalty of death for the

Capital Punishment The penalty of death for the commission of a crime. Capital- means “head”

History of UK Capital Punishment In the years after the end of the war in 1945, there were several notable CP cases. Either due to • British media, • The case's use by the pro- or anti-capital punishment people • And the “innocence” of the executed person. http: //www. stephen-stratford. co. uk/capital_hist. htm

In fact since 1945 three people have received posthumous pardons: Timothy Evans in 1966 and in 1998 both Mahood Mattan and Derek Bentley.

After the abolishing of capital punishment, there have been several famous cases of miscarriages of justice which would have resulted in executions, if that option had been available. A good example of this is the Birmingham Six case. http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Birmingham_Six

Important Historic Events • 1808 Samuel Romilly introduced reforms to abolish CP for crimes There were more than 200 CP offences in the “Bloody Code” • 1832 - 34 abolished for shop lifting • 1861 reduced to 4 crimes – (Murder, Treason, Arson in dockyards and Piracy with violence. )

1957 Homicide Act In 1957, the Homicide Act 1957 was passed. This restricted capital punishment in murder cases to five types of murder: • Murder in the course or furtherance of theft. • Murder by shooting or causing an explosion. • Murder while resisting arrest or during an escape. • Murder of a police officer or prison officer. • Two murders committed on different occasions. • 1965 abolished for all offences Unfair?

Capital Punishment Abolished The last executions in Britain were of two men on 13 August 1964. Peter Anthony Allen, aged 21, was hanged in Walton gaol, Liverpool and Gwynne Owen Evans, aged 24, was hanged in Strangeways, Manchester. They were both convicted of the murder of John Alan West, while robbing him in his house on 7 April 1964.

• Parliament then voted to abolish the death penalty for murder for a five-year experiment in 1965. • Another vote in 1969 finally made the abolition of the death penalty for murder "permanent" in Great Britain. A further vote in 1973 abolished it permanently in Northern Ireland. • There have been at least 13 attempts to bring back hanging for various categories of murder since 1969. All have failed, and the trend has been towards ever greater majorities in Parliament for abolition.

• In February 1994, a majority of 197 votes defeated a proposal to reintroduce the death penalty for the murder of a police officer on duty. • Since the abolishing of capital punishment for murder, the death sentence had remained in force for treason and piracy with violence. The use of capital punishment in these two instances was abolished in 1998 under the Crime and Disorder Act. • On 27 January 1999, the UK Home Secretary (The Labour MP Jack Straw) signed the 6 th protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This move formally abolishes the death penalty in the UK

• Describe the important events leading up to the abolition of Capital Punishment in the United kingdom. (4)KU

Questions “Capital Punishment is still legal in the united states of America” Describe in detail two methods of execution used in America. (4) KU Capital punishment is no longer carried out in the UK. It is, however, still used in other countries. Name three countries that still use capital punishment and describe the methods used in each of the chosen countries (4) KU http: //www. religioustolerance. org/execut 3. htm