Capital punishment in Great Britain

This chapter examines capital punishment in Britain from the ‘Bloody Code' of the eighteenth century to the present. It discusses key changes to relevant legislation across this period, as well as shifting practices of execution, and explains what led to the abolition of the death penalty for murder in 1965. The discussion refers to high-profile cases that were important cultural and political flashpoints in terms of the application and understanding of the death penalty, including the significance of gender, race and social class. The chapter considers the shifting cultural life of capital punishment in Britain and discusses its portrayal in ‘high' and ‘low' cultural forms. It ends by reflecting on the place of capital punishment in British collective memory in the post-abolition era.