Capital Punishment and British Politics
Capital Punishment and British Politics

Author: James B. Christoph

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-03-08

Total Pages: 126

ISBN-13: 1000819000

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First published in 1962, Capital Punishment and British Politics illuminates the process of political decision-making in Britain by analysing the complex activities that led to the passage of a major piece of social legislation, the Homicide Act of 1957. His case study, based on dozens of interviews, reveals in detail the workings of British politics and assesses the impact of the clash of ideas and interests on governmental policy. After surveying the legal and historical antecedents of the controversy surrounding the Act, the author traces the development from the abortive attempt to abolish the death penalty under the Labour Government through the spectacular murder cases of the early fifties to the compromise legislation successfully launched by a Conservative Government. Throughout the book analysis is coupled with description, and the concluding chapter demonstrates how this single case contained in microcosm many of the basic elements and dilemmas of the British political process. This fascinating study will be of great interest to students of politics and social legislation everywhere.

Execution
Execution

Author: Simon Webb

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2011-12-31

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 0752466623

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Judicial hanging is regarded by many as being the quintessentially British execution. However, many other methods of capital punishment have been used in this country; ranging from burning, beheading and shooting to crushing and boiling to death. Execution: A History of Capital Punishment in Britain explores these types of execution in detail. Readers may be surprised to learn that a means of mechanical decapitation, the Halifax Gibbet, was being used in England five hundred years before the guillotine was invented. Boiling to death was a prescribed means of execution in this country during the Tudor period. From the public death by starvation of those gibbeted alive, to the burning of women for petit treason, this book examines some of the most gruesome passages of British history. This carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to those interested in the history of British executions.

The Politics of the Rope
The Politics of the Rope

Author: N. H. Twitchell

Publisher: Arena books

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1906791988

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This illuminating broad-based political and cultural study presents the definitive account of the campaign to abolish capital punishment in the period 1955-69. It comprises a work of contemporary history exploring the theme from a number of angles, both pro and contra, which have not been covered so extensively before. From the sphere of governmental and parliamentary politics, to the relevant pressure groups, to the role of the mass media, to the significance of the different churches, and the influence of professional bodies, such as those representing the police and prison officers, the book skilfully identifies their interaction with one another. It examines the effect on the campaign of fluctuations in public opinion, and of controversial murder cases such as those of Timothy Evans, Derek Bentley, Ruth Ellis and James Hanratty, which in turn often informed the state of public opinion The work sets the campaign in the context of the social and cultural ferment of the era (the advent of the permissive society), and contrasts the fortunes of the movement with those of other "conscience issues," such as the legalisation of abortion, homosexual law reform, divorce liberalisation and the abolition of theatre censorship. It seeks to account for the success of the campaign within a relatively short time span in the face of intense public antipathy and a concerted effort by various elements of the establishment to thwart its fulfilment. It asks why the campaign succeeded when so many others facing lesser institutional obstacles failed, and it asks why it succeeded when it did and in the way it did, and considers whether the success of the campaign can be accounted for by the Zeitgeist. On one level it is a study of the politics of social reform, but at a deeper level it is a study of the way in which social trends feed through into political action at the parliamentary level, and illustrates the process of policy formation in the area of private members legislation and free votes where "party" has voluntarily taken a back seat.

Capital Punishment in Twentieth-Century Britain
Capital Punishment in Twentieth-Century Britain

Author: Lizzie Seal

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-03-05

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1136250727

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Capital punishment for murder was abolished in Britain in 1965. At this time, the way people in Britain perceived and understood the death penalty had changed – it was an issue that had become increasingly controversial, high-profile and fraught with emotion. In order to understand why this was, it is necessary to examine how ordinary people learned about and experienced capital punishment. Drawing on primary research, this book explores the cultural life of the death penalty in Britain in the twentieth century, including an exploration of the role of the popular press and a discussion of portrayals of the death penalty in plays, novels and films. Popular protest against capital punishment and public responses to and understandings of capital cases are also discussed, particularly in relation to conceptualisations of justice. Miscarriages of justice were significant to capital punishment’s increasingly fraught nature in the mid twentieth-century and the book analyses the unsettling power of two such high profile miscarriages of justice. The final chapters consider the continuing relevance of capital punishment in Britain after abolition, including its symbolism and how people negotiate memories of the death penalty. Capital Punishment in Twentieth-Century Britain is groundbreaking in its attention to the death penalty and the effect it had on everyday life and it is the only text on this era to place public and popular discourses about, and reactions to, capital punishment at the centre of the analysis. Interdisciplinary in focus and methodology, it will appeal to historians, criminologists, sociologists and socio-legal scholars.

Hanging in the Balance
Hanging in the Balance

Author: Brian P. Block

Publisher: Waterside Press

Published: 1997-09-30

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1908162392

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"Hanging in the Balance" traces the history of capital punishment in the United Kingdom from ancient times to the modern day - through periods of reform until hanging for murder was finally abolished by Parliament in 1969. It describes in detail the Parliamentary and public debates, and notes the stance taken by organizations and individuals (including the tenacious and persistent Sydney Silverman MP). The book collates data and references not previously brought together in one place-and in exploring the underlying issues and the recurring arguments about deterrence, retribution and expediency it provides an invaluable resource vis-a-vis the same debate in the many countries where capital punishment still exists.Lord Callaghan was home secretary at the time of abolition. His 'Foreword' conveys how strong his personal feelings were concerning the death penalty from the time he entered Parliament in 1945. The book's closing chapters record how his insistence that abolition should become permanent ultimately overcame the still considerable opposition. Capital punishment was finally abolished in 1999 throughout the UK. For all practical purposes this had already happened in 1969 when the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 was made fully effective into following a trial period.