| The last couple of years have given rise to more official and semi-official reflection on the days of capital punishment then at any time since the IRA bombing trials of the mid- 1970s. The lag execution (James Hanratty) took place in the United Kingdom in 1964, capital punishment it was abolished for murder in 1965,(1). arson in HM Shipyard in 1971,(2). and that it was finally abolished for treason and piracy in 1998,(3). Tireless activity on behalf of campaigners has lead to the reappearance before the courts in recent years of clam for the posthumous pardons to be granted to persons executed before abolition. As a consequence of the Royal Commission on Criminal Justicie the Criminal Cases Review Authority was created in 1996 as an alternative to the previously existing power of the Home Secretary to refer cases of alleged miscarriages of justice to the Court of Appeal. This has lead to the consideration by the Court of Appeal of a series of causes celebres (Ruth Ellis, Derek Bentley, James Hanratty, Mahmood Mattan) arising from executions in the late 1950s and 1960s. The First two have been the subject of films and the second is to become a musical. Much literature has been generated about the first three. Whenever public opinion is polled the United Kingdom always expresses; a strong majority to have the death penalty restored (though the majority has lessened slightly recently). The essay will concentrate upon three historical conjunctures. 1. The events surrounding the Royal Commission an Capital punishment (1953) and the Homicide Act 1957. 2. The events in 1965 surrounding abolition, and the parts played by Roy Jenkins and Gerald Gardiner and Leon Radzinowicz. 3. The events of 1998 since the Criminal Cases Review Authority was put in place and the British government legislated so as to accede to the protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights ruling out capital punishment, The analysis will concentrate upon the changes in the nature of the discourse as between the three periods, and the conditions for countermajoritarian abolition. |
Updated 05/20/2006