Public reaction

• On the night of Bentley’s execution, 5000 protestors demonstrated outside Wandsworth Prison.
• The case was publicised via books, films and songs.
• The Bentley family campaigned for over 40 years, and Bentley was eventually pardoned in 1993.
• 200 MPs supported a parliamentary motion calling for Bentley’s reprieve, but the sentence had been carried out before there was time to debate it.
• The Bentley case was one factor that led to growing calls for the abolition of the death penalty.