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Hanging has been the principal form of execution in Britain since the 5th Century, although other methods such as drowning, burial alive, hurling from cliffs, beheading, boiling alive and shooting have been used at various times. Here are a few facts about the death penalty:-
1) 5th Century. Hanging first introduced as a method of execution in Anglo-Saxon Britain.
2) 1196. William Fitz Osbert became the first to hang at Tyburn (for sedition).
3) Circa 1500. Eight capital crimes defined : Treason, petty treason, murder, robbery, larceny, rape and arson.
4) 1787. Transportation replaced hanging, in practice, for many felonies. In the decade 1784 - 1793 there were 434 hangings ordered by the London and Middlesex court (which became the Old Bailey). In the next ten years this dropped to 165 and to 119 in the decade from 1804 - 1813. Prisoners convicted of a first time felony (other than murder, coining forgery and arson) frequently had their death sentences commuted to transportation and this practice carried on until around 1857 by which time very few people were being hanged for crimes other than murder. The minimum time of transportation was 7 years and could be up to the rest of the prisoner's life. Only about 5% of those sentenced to transportation actually ever returned to Britain. Transportation was formally abolished in 1868.
5) 18th March 1789. The last burning at the stake took place at Newgate when Catherine (or Christian) Murphy was executed for High Treason (coining).
6) 1814 Last hanging under the "Black Act" - William Potter for the crime of cutting down an orchard. Even the judge petitioned for a reprieve!
7) 1861. Criminal Law Consolidation Act reduced the number of capital crimes to four : murder, treason (including arson in Royal Naval dockyards), mutiny and piracy.
8) 26th May 1868. Last fully public hanging in England. Michael Barrett at Newgate for the Fenian bombing at Clerkenwell which killed seven people.
9) 1902. Holloway converted to become London's female prison.
10) 1908. The execution of persons under 16 outlawed by the Children's Act of that year.
11) 1931. Sentence of Death (Expectant Mothers) Act 1931. Pregnant women were no longer to be hanged after giving birth. (Mary Ann Cotton became the last to suffer at Durham Castle on 24th March 1873, her baby being taken from her before execution)
12) 27th January 1999. The Home Secretary (Jack Straw) formally signed the 6th protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights in Strasbourg, on behalf of the British government formally abolishing the death penalty in the UK. It had been still theoretically available for treason and piracy up to then but it was extremely unlikely that even if anyone had been convicted of these crimes over the preceeding 30 years that they would have actually been executed. Successive Home Secretaries had always reprieved persons sentenced to death in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man where the death sentence for murder could still be passed and the Royal Prerogative was observed.
In Britain, between abolition in 1964 and 1999, the murder rate more than doubled (to around 750 per annum) and there have been 71 murders committed by people who have been released after serving "life sentences" in the same period, according to Home Office statistics. Statistics were kept for the 5 years that capital punishment was suspended in Britain (1965 - 1969) and these showed a 125% rise in murders that would have attracted a death sentence. Whilst statistically all this is true it does not tell one how society has changed over the those 34 years. It may well be that the murder rate would be the same today if we had retained and continued to use the death penalty. It impossible to say that only this one factor affects the murder rate. Easier divorce has greatly reduced the number of domestic murders, unavailability of poisons has seen poisoning become almost extinct, whilst tight gun control has reduced the number of shootings. However stabbings have increased dramatically as have the kicking and beating to death of people who have "looked at me funny" or "been eyeing up my girlfriend" i.e. vicious and virtually motiveless killings. As in America greatly improved medical techniques have saved many victims who would have previously died from their injuries (e.g. Josie Russell).
But will Britain restore capital punishment in the future? In the short term (say the next 10 years) the answer is definitely not. Successive free votes on the issue in the Commons have failed to get anywhere near a majority for restoration. There is no doubt that capital punishment is a very emotive issue and there is a strong anti death penalty lobby in this country who would put every obstacle in the way of it's return should it ever become likely.
Re-introduction of something that has been abolished is always much more difficult than introducing something entirely new.
Politically it would also be very difficult given our membership of the EU and our commitment to European Convention on Human Rights, both of which are strongly against capital punishment. The EU contains no member states that practice it and will not allow retentionist states to join. The present Labour government is implacably opposed to capital punishment and has removed it from the statute book for the few remaining offences for which it was still theoretically allowed.
There is also considerable concern at the number of convictions that are being declared unsafe by the Courts, particularly for the most serious offences such as murder and terrorism. Support for the death penalty in Britain seems to be slowly diminishing particularly amongst young people.
Yet we live in a time of ever rising serious crime. Will people become so fed up with escalating levels of crime and what they see in, most cases, as derisory punishments that they will support anything that appears likely to reduce crime and redress the balance? Or do they see the return of capital punishment as a return to barbarity?
I feel that capital punishment should be restored as it will stop people from commiting a lot of crimes. As I said earlier, most crimes have risen since the death penalty was abolished…. People will think… if I kill this person then I will die myself, and they don’t want that, so they won’t do it in the first place.
How do you feel on the subject??? Are you for or against Capital Punishment?
1) 5th Century. Hanging first introduced as a method of execution in Anglo-Saxon Britain.
2) 1196. William Fitz Osbert became the first to hang at Tyburn (for sedition).
3) Circa 1500. Eight capital crimes defined : Treason, petty treason, murder, robbery, larceny, rape and arson.
4) 1787. Transportation replaced hanging, in practice, for many felonies. In the decade 1784 - 1793 there were 434 hangings ordered by the London and Middlesex court (which became the Old Bailey). In the next ten years this dropped to 165 and to 119 in the decade from 1804 - 1813. Prisoners convicted of a first time felony (other than murder, coining forgery and arson) frequently had their death sentences commuted to transportation and this practice carried on until around 1857 by which time very few people were being hanged for crimes other than murder. The minimum time of transportation was 7 years and could be up to the rest of the prisoner's life. Only about 5% of those sentenced to transportation actually ever returned to Britain. Transportation was formally abolished in 1868.
5) 18th March 1789. The last burning at the stake took place at Newgate when Catherine (or Christian) Murphy was executed for High Treason (coining).
6) 1814 Last hanging under the "Black Act" - William Potter for the crime of cutting down an orchard. Even the judge petitioned for a reprieve!
7) 1861. Criminal Law Consolidation Act reduced the number of capital crimes to four : murder, treason (including arson in Royal Naval dockyards), mutiny and piracy.
8) 26th May 1868. Last fully public hanging in England. Michael Barrett at Newgate for the Fenian bombing at Clerkenwell which killed seven people.
9) 1902. Holloway converted to become London's female prison.
10) 1908. The execution of persons under 16 outlawed by the Children's Act of that year.
11) 1931. Sentence of Death (Expectant Mothers) Act 1931. Pregnant women were no longer to be hanged after giving birth. (Mary Ann Cotton became the last to suffer at Durham Castle on 24th March 1873, her baby being taken from her before execution)
12) 27th January 1999. The Home Secretary (Jack Straw) formally signed the 6th protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights in Strasbourg, on behalf of the British government formally abolishing the death penalty in the UK. It had been still theoretically available for treason and piracy up to then but it was extremely unlikely that even if anyone had been convicted of these crimes over the preceeding 30 years that they would have actually been executed. Successive Home Secretaries had always reprieved persons sentenced to death in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man where the death sentence for murder could still be passed and the Royal Prerogative was observed.
In Britain, between abolition in 1964 and 1999, the murder rate more than doubled (to around 750 per annum) and there have been 71 murders committed by people who have been released after serving "life sentences" in the same period, according to Home Office statistics. Statistics were kept for the 5 years that capital punishment was suspended in Britain (1965 - 1969) and these showed a 125% rise in murders that would have attracted a death sentence. Whilst statistically all this is true it does not tell one how society has changed over the those 34 years. It may well be that the murder rate would be the same today if we had retained and continued to use the death penalty. It impossible to say that only this one factor affects the murder rate. Easier divorce has greatly reduced the number of domestic murders, unavailability of poisons has seen poisoning become almost extinct, whilst tight gun control has reduced the number of shootings. However stabbings have increased dramatically as have the kicking and beating to death of people who have "looked at me funny" or "been eyeing up my girlfriend" i.e. vicious and virtually motiveless killings. As in America greatly improved medical techniques have saved many victims who would have previously died from their injuries (e.g. Josie Russell).
But will Britain restore capital punishment in the future? In the short term (say the next 10 years) the answer is definitely not. Successive free votes on the issue in the Commons have failed to get anywhere near a majority for restoration. There is no doubt that capital punishment is a very emotive issue and there is a strong anti death penalty lobby in this country who would put every obstacle in the way of it's return should it ever become likely.
Re-introduction of something that has been abolished is always much more difficult than introducing something entirely new.
Politically it would also be very difficult given our membership of the EU and our commitment to European Convention on Human Rights, both of which are strongly against capital punishment. The EU contains no member states that practice it and will not allow retentionist states to join. The present Labour government is implacably opposed to capital punishment and has removed it from the statute book for the few remaining offences for which it was still theoretically allowed.
There is also considerable concern at the number of convictions that are being declared unsafe by the Courts, particularly for the most serious offences such as murder and terrorism. Support for the death penalty in Britain seems to be slowly diminishing particularly amongst young people.
Yet we live in a time of ever rising serious crime. Will people become so fed up with escalating levels of crime and what they see in, most cases, as derisory punishments that they will support anything that appears likely to reduce crime and redress the balance? Or do they see the return of capital punishment as a return to barbarity?
I feel that capital punishment should be restored as it will stop people from commiting a lot of crimes. As I said earlier, most crimes have risen since the death penalty was abolished…. People will think… if I kill this person then I will die myself, and they don’t want that, so they won’t do it in the first place.
How do you feel on the subject??? Are you for or against Capital Punishment?
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Against it. One innocent person mistakingly put to death is too many. Murder is murder is murder.
the problem is if you are given the death penalty its likely to be lethal injection, well its just like fallin asleep. (so i believe anyway, i don't talk to the dead) its an easy way out, spend a few years on death row, die peacefully. Should either be capital punishemtn as painfull, prolonged and unpleasant (having your *ahem* cut and being put in a tank of piranahs) or you should spend life in jail, more of a punichemnt to spend 50 years in a tiny padded cell with nothing to do at all.
Mass murderers, yes, I believe the death penalty should be used for them. If someone kills one person, there could be a thousand reasons as to why, so a (very) lengthy jail sentence is what they deserve. Someone who kills more than one person is obviously either not right in the head, or is evil
We could just put them in a room together without food or water and let them kill eachother/starve.
This may seem harsh/cruel/inhuman but just think what they did...
This may seem harsh/cruel/inhuman but just think what they did...
..Unless of course, there are five Uri Gellers present, in which case they may well will the lever.
VenomByte wrote:
>all of whom will will the lever .
Should read:
"all of whom will pull their lever"
>all of whom will will the lever .
Should read:
"all of whom will pull their lever"
Rosalind wrote:
[Somethign about the guilt felt by the person who has to kill the convicted criminal]
Nobody has to pull the lever. Well, to be more accurate, nobody has to know who pulls the lever.
I believe it's set up so that there are five levers and five executioners, all of whom will will the lever simultaneously. Only one of the levers is connected, so it's never known who was responsible. This makes it considerably easier to live with.
[Somethign about the guilt felt by the person who has to kill the convicted criminal]
Nobody has to pull the lever. Well, to be more accurate, nobody has to know who pulls the lever.
I believe it's set up so that there are five levers and five executioners, all of whom will will the lever simultaneously. Only one of the levers is connected, so it's never known who was responsible. This makes it considerably easier to live with.
Goatboy wrote:
> BlondeBombShell wrote:
> i'm all for Euthinasia
> ----
>
> I liked his 1st album, but after he did that "Stan" song, I
> thought he was rubbish
No Goatboy, that was Eminem.
> BlondeBombShell wrote:
> i'm all for Euthinasia
> ----
>
> I liked his 1st album, but after he did that "Stan" song, I
> thought he was rubbish
No Goatboy, that was Eminem.
What's the one way you can be 100% sure that a serial killer won't kill again?
If they're not on the Earth to do it.
(Just a perspective to ignite debate, the editor may not necessarily share these views)
If they're not on the Earth to do it.
(Just a perspective to ignite debate, the editor may not necessarily share these views)
What's the one way you can be 100% sure that a serial killer won't kill again?
If there not on the Earth to do it.
(Just a perspective to ignite debate, the editor may not necessarily share these views)
If there not on the Earth to do it.
(Just a perspective to ignite debate, the editor may not necessarily share these views)
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