Capital Punishment.

In 1949, Timothy Evans returned home to find his wife and 14 month old daughter strangled to death. With shock and panic he fled to London. A few days later he went to the police in Wales and told them of the murders- he blamed his neighbor John Christie however he was charged and tried for both murders and hanged in 1950. John Christie had also fled his flat but a tenant found three dead prostitutes hidden in Christie’s kitchen. Upon further examination they found Mrs. Christie under the floorboards in the bedroom and body parts and bones in the garden. When he was found he confessed to have killing his wife and eventually others. Altogether he was charged with 9 murders and hanged on July 15th, 1953.

Timothy Evan was an innocent man hanged for a crime he did not commit. Who has to decide whether people are innocent or guilty and does the society have the right to take a life? By killing those who we believe to have killed are we not ourselves made killers and sinking to the level of those we are trying to eradicate. There was a reprieve system, however how can we be sure that those hanged were guilty of worse crimes than that reprieved, or was the whole reprieve system just a lottery that was incapable of distinguishing between degrees of wickedness?

Another case is the one of Ruth Ellis. Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in 1955. She was sentenced to hang for murdering her boyfriend David Blakely. She shot him 5 times in a jealous when he refused to see her. She was arrested by an off duty policeman and eventually sentenced to death. Her case attracted enormous public sympathy which furthered the case of abolition. Ruth Ellis knew the consequences of killing her boyfriend and yet she still did it. Does this mean that hanging was not a deterrent it was made out to be?

In March 1956 the Death Penalty Abolition Bill was passed by Parliament but was thrown out by the House of Lords meaning it was legal again. A new Labour Government in 1964 made its abolition its main priority resulting in its suspension for 5 years.

Capital punishment was an inhumane way of dealing with people and caused the death of many innocent people, many portrayed in well known films today. Therefore I believe  harsher prison sentences is a balance between what we have today and capital punishment. Capital punishment killed many people and yet nowadays murderers, rapists and pedophiles are being let back into our society after a so called ‘life sentence’ or even a few years to then commit more crimes. I do not believe that we have yet got the right balance within our society.