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scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 527

Under the impression that capital offences went out with the mini-skirt? Think again - especially if you gave any false air signals during the 1990s

Today is the anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in Britain.

Yet, surprisingly, it is only the 10th anniversary. Though the gallows
trapdoor last swung open in 1964, the death penalty was only completely
abolished in 1998.

The death penalty for murder was ostensibly abolished in 1969 with the
Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act, but unknown to many, the
ultimate capital punishment remained on the statute books for a number of other offences for almost three further decades, lasting until the final
years of the 20th Century.

The most familiar of these offences was treason, defined by the Oxford
English Dictionary as: "Violation by a subject of allegiance to the
sovereign or to the State, especially by attempting to kill or overthrow
the sovereign or to overthrow the government.:

Until 1998, the perpetration of "piracy with violence" was also punishable
by death, as decreed by the Piracy Act 1837.

Furthermore, did soldiers in the 1990s know that a Damoclesian sword of
execution hung above their heads for 6 offences? They were listed as:

1 Serious misconduct in action

2 Assisting the enemy

3 Obstructing operations

4 Giving false air signals

5 Mutiny or incitement to mutiny

6 Failure to suppress a mutiny with intent to assist the enemy

Until 1998, the Army Act decreed that any soldier who disobeyed authority
"in such circumstances as to make the disobedience subversive of
discipline, or with the object of avoiding any duty or service against, or
in connection with operations against, the enemy", was "liable to suffer
death".

The beginning of the end for the death penalty came 44 years ago. The last
men to be hanged by the state were Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen
Evans, who were charged with "capital murder", before being executed at
9am on August 13, 1964 for the murder of John Alan West.

In 1965, staunch anti-death penalty campaigner and Labour MP Sydney
Silverman introduced a private member's bill to the House, proposing that
the death penalty be abolished, which was passed by 200 votes to 98. The
bill was passed on a free vote a vote taken on matters of conscience and
in which the party whips do not direct members how to vote.

The Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act 1965, suspended the death
penalty for murder in England, Scotland and Wales (though not in Northern
Ireland until 1973), and in 1969, Home Secretary and future Prime Minister
James Callaghan made the act permanent.

Die-hards forced the Commons to hold a free vote on a motion during each
Parliament proposing the reintroduction of the death penalty, but the
motion was always resoundingly defeated.

And yet the death penalty remained in British law for other offences.

Until 1971, anyone found guilty of "causing a fire or explosion in a naval
dockyard, ship, magazine or warehouse" was liable to be executed, until
the Criminal Damage Act 1971 repealed the capital offence of "arson in a
royal dockyard".

Spies against the realm, and namely naval spies, could be charged with
"capital espionage", punishable by death until 1981, when the Armed Forces
Act 1981 revoked the death penalty. Under the Official Secrets Act 1911,
espionage still carries a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.

Though no-one has been executed in Britain since Allen and Evans in 1964,
death sentences have been passed. In 1973, William Holden was convicted of
the capital murder of a British soldier during the Troubles, although he
was removed from the death cell later that year.

In 1998, Lord Archer of Sandwell (Peter Kingsley Archer, just to clarify),
proposed an amendment to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, thus abolishing
once and for all the death penalty for treason and piracy, replacing it
with a discretionary maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

On May 20 1998, the Commons voted through a ratification of the 6th
protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights, prohibiting capital
punishment except "in time of war or imminent threat of war", a caveat
itself removed when the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force in Britain,
ten years ago today.

As Britain is subject to the European Convention, the death penalty cannot
be restored in this country unless Britain were to secede from the Council
of Europe.

Anti-death penalty campaigners, and philosophers such as Albert Camus in
his novel L'tranger, have always maintained that the fallibility of any
justice system - and of human judgement itself renders immoral the
application of so unequivocal a sentence as the death penalty.

Their point was highlighted when, in 2003, the conviction of George Kelly,
a 27-year-old man hanged for the murder of a cinema manager in Liverpool
in 1950, was overturned by the court of appeal as "unsafe".

American campaigning group Truth in Justice claim that at least 16
innocent people have been executed in the United States, and continue to
press for the abolition of capital punishment in their country.

(source: The London Times)

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Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins." - Old Native American Indian Prayer that my dad taught me.

Lydia · Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 82

Interesting facts, I enjoyed the post.

If a loved one is killed, I imagine the relatives may be forgiven the thought of comfort by seeing the perpetrator hung. They may also feel that an eye for an eye is the only revenge they seek. My thoughts on this issue are I pray I would not have that thought if my loved one was murdered in any of those ways.

Unfortunately, now although our Labour Government cannot hang people they can put them in prison for quite a while with no contact with the outside world. If you really annoy them, they could decide you have a mental health problem and if you will not take the medicine, they provide they can have you detained under the mental health act as a danger to the public.

Changed days indeed.

It seems no solicitor can or will be involved in these cases.
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We are the parents in Scotland denied justice for our children who had illegal post mortem's or had organs removed illegally at post mortem.

W.Roughead · Joined: 25 Oct 2008 Posts: 120 Location: Scotland.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5118421.ece

Out of curiosity, I wondered if anyone has ever read the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1949-1953 Report. It was first published in September 1953. It was reprinted in 1987, this is the copy I have. I have not checked whether it has been reprinted, although I suspect it has.

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“Send not to know for whom the bell tolls – it tolls for thee.” John Donne.