Death penalty abolition

• In 1908 the Children’s Act ended hanging of children under the age of 16.
• The 1922 Infanticide Act said mothers who killed babies would no longer receive the death penalty.
• In 1957 the Homicide Act limited the death sentence to five categories of murder.
• After the 1957 Homicide Act, there were an average of four executions a year (down from around 15 people a year in the earlier 1950s).
• In 1965 the Murder Act suspended the death penalty for murder for five years; this was made permanent in 1969.
• A few crimes continued to carry the death penalty, including espionage, arson in the royal dockyards, and piracy with violence, but in reality the death penalty was not still used.
• The death penalty was ended for all crimes in 1998.
• In parliament, opinions about the death penalty were strongly divided. The House of Commons passed bills abolishing the death penalty in 1948 and 1956, but these were blocked by the House of Lords.