Death Penalty

• The 1922 Infanticide Act said mothers who killed newborn babies would no longer receive the death penalty.
• In 1908 the Children’s Act ended hanging of children under the age of 16.
• In 1957 the Homicide Act limited the death sentence to five categories of murder
• After the 1957 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.
• The home secretary who oversaw the abolition of the death penalty was Roy Jenkins, and he is seen as a key reason for why abolition eventually succeeded.
• The abolition of the death penalty was a part of a pattern of changing attitudes in the 1960s, when generally attitudes became more liberal.
• Timothy Evans, who was hanged for murdering his wife and baby in 1950. Later evidence showed that they had been killed by a serial killer and Evans was in fact innocent.
• A series of controversial executions also caused the public to question execution.
• In 1953, Derek Bentley was hanged for the murder of a police officer, despite having learning difficulties and a low mental age.
• In 1955, Ruth Ellis was hanged for the murder of her abusive boyfriend. She was pregnant and the mother to a young child. A petition with 50,000 signatures asking for leniency (mercy) was ignored by the home secretary.