such as murder, treason etc.
Yes No
6. How would you ensure that no innocent person receives the death penalty?
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7. Do you think Capital Punishment will deter criminals from committing a crime?
Yes No
8. Have you ever been suspected or accused of committing a crime?
Yes No
As part of my PRS context I will be focusing on two Capital Punishment cases the first case is about one of the most controversial cases in British legal history. On the 2nd of November 1952 two youths were spotted breaking into Barlow & Parker, a wholesale confectioner’s in Croydon. The police were called and they arrived at about 9.25pm in a van and a car. Bentley and Craig spotted the police and tried to hide behind a lift-housing on the flat roof of the warehouse. DC Frederick Fairfax noticed a footprint on a windowsill and climbed a drainpipe onto the flat roof. Fairfax called on the pair to surrender but was shown lots of retaliation from Craig. He charged at them and grabbed the nearest person, which happened to be Bentley. Bentley broke free and called to Craig, “Let him have it, Chris!” Craig fired and wounded DC Fairfax in the shoulder. Fairfax caught up with Bentley and got him with a punch.
DC Fairfax stripped Bentley of his weapons, a knife and a knuckle-duster. By this time armed reinforcements had arrived and surrounded the building. PC Miles, who had been in the first car to arrive, had located the manager of the building and had obtained the keys. Miles entered the building and went up an interior staircase to the roof. He kicked open the roof door and stepped onto the roof. He fell dead, shot through the left temple. Craig continued to fire and shout threats at the police until he ran out of bullets. He then jumped from the roof of the building, a drop of twenty-seven feet. The fall broke his spine, breastbone and left wrist. In the meantime, Bentley had been escorted from the roof under arrest.
At their trial at the Old Bailey they were both charged with murder, even though Bentley was under arrest when Craig fired the shot that killed PC Miles. Craig, being sixteen at the time, could not be hanged. There were many contentious points at their trial. The defence maintained that Craig had not been aiming at the policemen when he fired, but over their heads. A ballistics expert, Mr. Lewis Nicholls, gave evidence that the gun, a sawn-off, First World War .455 Eley service revolver, was wildly inaccurate at distances over six feet. No one was sure how many shots had been fired on the roof. Craig stated that he had reloaded the gun once and had fired eleven times, two of them being misfires. Police only found two bullets on the roof and one in Fairfax’s clothing. No trace could be found of the bullet that killed Miles. Many of the judge’s continual interjections during the trial were damaging to the defence. The main point of the prosecution’s case was based on the pair having a common purpose while the defence maintained that the ‘joint enterprise’ had ended fifteen minutes before PC Miles’ death, when Bentley was arrested.
The jury considered their verdict for just seventy-five minutes before returning guilty verdicts on both youths, with a recommendation for mercy in Bentley’s case. Bentley was sentenced to death. Craig, who the judge described as “one of the most dangerous young criminals who has ever stood in that dock” was sentenced to be detained during Her Majesty’s pleasure.
Albert Pierrepoint hanged Derek Bentley, aged nineteen, in Wandsworth Prison at 9am on 28th January 1953. Craig was released from prison in May 1963 and he settled in Buckinghamshire.
The second Capital Punishment case is about Ruth Ellis. She had a very passionate and intense relationship with a young man called David Blakely with who she often quarrelled and had recently suffered a miscarriage at the hands of after he punched her in the stomach during a fight.
Blakely was a waster and a heavy drinker who used to frequent the Little Club, a drinking club which Ruth managed. He was building a racing car with his friends the Findlaters and over Easter of 1955 consistently refused to see her despite repeated visits and phone calls to the Findlater's house where he was staying. They had, unfortunately, taken on a nanny whom Ruth suspected David was having an affair with, although in truth he wasn't.
So in a anger of jealousy and rejection on Easter Sunday afternoon (10th April) Ruth persuaded her other boyfriend, Desmond Cussen to drive her to Hampstead where she lay in wait for Blakely outside the Magdala public house in South Hill Park, where he and Findlater were drinking.
When they came out to the car to drive home she pursued Blakely and shot him five times, the last shot from point blank range, as he lay wounded on the ground. One bullet injured a Mrs. Gladys Yule in the hand as she was walking up to the pub.
Other drinkers came out of the pub to see what had happened and Ruth was arrested by an off-duty policeman, Alan Thompson, still holding the smoking gun. She was taken to Hampstead police station where she appeared to be calm and not obviously under the influence of drink or drugs, which she is alleged to have been taking by some on the afternoon prior to the shooting. She made a confession to the police and was charged with murder. She appeared at a special hearing of Hampstead Magistrates Court the following day where she was remanded in custody to Holloway Prison to await trial.
Her trial opened on Monday 20th June 1955 in the Old Bailey's Number One Court before Mr. Justice Havers.
She pleaded not guilty, apparently so that her side of the story could be told, rather than in any hope of acquittal. She particularly wanted disclosed the involvement of the Findlaters in what she saw as a conspiracy to keep David away from her.
When the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Christmas Humphries asked her "Mrs. Ellis, when you fired that revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely what did you intend to do" she replied, "It was obvious that when I shot him I intended to kill him."
There were legal submissions made by Mr Melford Stevenson, QC, counsel for the defence, regarding provocation. Mr. Justice Havers said he had given careful consideration to these but ruled that there was "insufficient material, even upon a view of the evidence most favourable to the accused, to support a verdict of manslaughter on the grounds of provocation."
Not surprisingly in the end the jury found her guilty after talking for only twenty-three minutes. It was hard to see how any other verdict was possible.
To convict a person of murder two things have to be proved, one that the person actually killed the victim and two that they intended to kill the victim (known as the "mens rea" or the "guilty mind") - clearly there was no question as to whether Ruth had actually killed David Blakely and by her famous answer to the question as to her intention when she fired the shots there could be no question as to her intent. If it had been possible to show that she had not intended to kill him the correct verdict would have been guilty of manslaughter.
Mr. Justice Havers had no alternative but to sentence her to death. The black cap was placed on his head and he sentenced her to be taken to the place where she had last been confined and from there to a place of execution where she would suffer death by hanging. To which she replied "Thank you".
Unlike many people who have just heard their death sentence Ruth did not faint or become hysterical but rather turned smartly, smiled to her friends in the public gallery and walked calmly down the stairs at the back of the dock.
She decided against an appeal (there were absolutely no legal grounds for one) and therefore the final decision on her fate rested with the Home Secretary, Major Gwilym Lloyd George. Despite considerable public and press pressure he decided against her.
So in my conclusion both the verdicts given from these cases were unfair.
In my coursework I will use both Primary and Secondary Methods of Research. The secondary sources I will use in my PRS includes; Media (TV, Film, Video and The Internet)
I will discuss these as part of my Context. As I stated in my Rationale/Context secondary sources have both advantages and disadvantages.
These include advantages such as:
The information already exists
Internet is very fast with a lot of information
However disadvantages such as:
Bias are a problem. Newspapers sensationalise the whole issue of Capital Punishment in order to sell and attract more readers.
Primary research methods include interviews, observations and questionnaires. Each of these have advantages and disadvantages. For my PRS I have chosen to use questionnaires as my research method.
The advantages of using a questionnaire are:
It reaches a large number of people
A widely dispersed population
Good for embarrassing subjects
No interviewer bias
The disadvantages of using a questionnaire are:
Low response rate
Difficult to go into depth
Never know if correct person answers
People may not be truthful
I have chosen not to use observation as one of my primary research methods. I feel it is unsuitable for my PRS because it would be impossible for me to observe Capital Punishment taking place or visit Death Row and observe prisoners waiting for death. This wouldn’t benefit my study anyway.
I have also chosen not to use in-depth interviews because it takes a long amount of time which I don’t have, it doesn’t have much use on large amounts of people which I need for my PRS and the interviewer may be biased towards the subject and would only follow up what they think are important.
