Each month the Library hosts displays, and this month, the focus is on the history of executions from its roots, through early reformers (including a Gray’s Inn Member), to its abolition 60 years ago.
Capital punishment has existed in law for thousands of years in a variety of forms and methods. From as early as the 10th century, hanging was the most common method of capital punishment. That same method was used in its final instance, on the 13th of August 1964, when Peter Anthony Allen & Gwynne Owen Evans were simultaneously hanged.
The use of execution as a form of punishment has varied in UK history. In the Tudor period, the frequency of people being sentenced to death was high. During the reign of Henry VIII alone there were approximately 72,000 executions. However, this was not the time in which the death sentence was passed out for the widest variety of crimes. That was during the ‘The Bloody Code’, the name given to the legal system in the 17th and 18th centuries which made more than 200 offences punishable by death.
Early reformers, including Gray’s Inn Member, Sir Samuel Romilly, questioned and challenged the use of the death penalty. Romilly was called to the Bar in 1782 later becoming an MP and Solicitor General. In that role, he worked to reform criminal law, repealing capital offences for several crimes. He also oversaw the abolition of hanging, drawing and quartering as a method of execution in 1814.
Full abolition of the death penalty didn’t occur until well into the 20th century. In 1925 the National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty was founded, leading to the first Parliamentary debate on the topic in 1929. A series of controversial cases in the early 20th century, including the trials of Derek Bentley, Ruth Ellis, and Timothy Evans (whose full trial you can read about in our ‘Trial of the Month’ display in the Library) led to increased public outcry.
The passing of the 1957 Homicide Act restricted use of the death penalty to certain types of murder, including those related to theft, or the murder of policemen and prison officers. Following this, the 1965 Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act was passed for a trial period of 5 years. This Act was made permanent in 1969 after findings showed “the murder rate (…) remains remarkably stable” (Home Secretary, James Callagan).
Come and check out our Library displays to learn more!