NGO report

The abolition of the death penalty in the United Kingdom. How it happened and why it still matters

By Death Penalty Project / Julian B. Knowles QC, on 1 January 2015


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Drawing on his own extensive advocacy experience in individual death row cases, Knowles traces the history of capital punishment in the UK, and in particular, the sequence of events that led to its abolition and analyses the impact that domestic and international law would have on any attempt to reintroduce it.Many lessons can be learnt from the United Kingdom’s experience. The movement to abolition was brought about by a combination of factors, including Parliamentary campaigning; changing attitudes towards social and penal affairs; and significantly, public disquiet over three controversial executions in the 1950s and a shocking series of miscarriages of justice cases that came to light in subsequent years.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Trend Towards Abolition, Country/Regional profiles,



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