Reform of the death penalty began in 1808 when Sir Samuel Romilly had the death penalty removed for pick pockets and lesser offences. This reform process continued over the next 50 years. The Judgement of Death Act, 1823 gave judges the power to commute for all capital crimes except treason and murder.
Public executions were abolished by the Royal Commission on capital punishment (1864-66). It recommended that all executions were to be carried out in prison.
The Children’s Charter in 1908 abolished capital punishment for all juveniles under 16. In 1922 a new offence of Infanticide was introduced to replace the charge of murder for mothers killing their children in the first year of life. In 1933 the minimum age for capital punishment was raised to 18 with The Children’s and Young Persons Act 1933.
In 1965 the Labour MP Sidney Silverman proposed a private members bill on the abolishment of capital punishment which was passed by 200 votes to 98. This shows that Capital Punishment was getting less and less popular.
The reintroduction of the death penalty in Britain is a debate that has been going on for decades and there are issues for human rights for us all if it were to be introduced. Laws would have to be passed that would contain sufficient safeguards to satisfy the public. We must consider the likelihood for an innocent person to be executed; it is inevitable that it will happen sooner or later. The most important question is, “Will executions prove to be the deterrent that the supporters of Capital Punishment expect them to be?”. It is highly unlikely that the very worst murderers would not commit their heinous crimes because they are most likely to be psychopaths or insane and are incapable of rational behaviour. The Hungerford and Dunblane massacres in my opinion could not have been stopped by the Death Penalty alone as both perpetrators killed themselves. Bank robbers and other armed criminals may be deterred because they have a clear option with defined risks.
It is my opinion that a few executions a year will not have any real effect on the people that society would most like to be rid of, for example, serial killers, rapists and drug barrens. The criminal justice system in Britain usually judges serial killers to be mentally insane therefore we go back to the situation where only sane murderers can be executed. Capital Punishment removes the individual’s humanity and with it any chance of rehabilitation. I believe there is no such a thing as a humane method of putting a person to death.
Statistics show that 66.5% of the population would like capital punishment to be reinstated; violent crime in Britain has increased by 14% last year and gun crime by 35%. Support for the death penalty in Britain has been steadily growing and will continue to grow as we hear of more and more heinous crimes. Popularity for the death sentence increases with the increased media exposure, which brings violent crimes into our living rooms. Our membership of the EU and our commitment to the European Convention on human rights, both of which are totally against Capital Punishment would rule out any reintroduction of the death penalty. No EU Country carries out capital punishment and it will not allow retentionist states to join. The present Labour Government has removed capital punishment from the statute books. The Conservative Party is still split on the issue and the Liberal Democrats are firmly against it, therefore, it is highly unlikely that it would ever be reintroduced in the near future.
Does the death penalty deter? That is the million dollar question that every government would like to know. I believe that this form of punishment does not deter. It is very difficult to prove one way or the other because in most retentionist countries the number of people actually executed is very small compared to those actually sentenced to death. In countries like Singapore where the statistics tend to support capital punishment the death penalty appears to be a deterrent but this is because execution is an absolute certainty. We live in testing times especially with the new threat of Islamic terrorism and it is not impossible that the debate for the reintroduction of capital punishment will come up in the future. In conclusion and on examination of all relevant facts and statistics I feel that Capital Punishment does not deter crime and that the habitual and career criminal will continue to offend.
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This is a graph showing trends among blacks and whites in favour of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder.