death

[captainkirk]

can you now in the year of 2007 still get hanged for a crime. like killing the queen. or can you not get sentenced. for a crime in the uk and still get hanged for it. can you still die or not. can you tell me if you can . please. tank you.

[pete-duel]

there are still crimes that carry capital punishment captainkirk but are not enforced anymore
27th of January 1999. The Home Secretary (Jack Straw) formally signed the 6th protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights in Strasbourg, on behalf of the British government formally abolishing the death penalty in the UK. It had been still theoretically available for treason and piracy up to 1998 but it was extremely unlikely that even if anyone had been convicted of these crimes over the preceding 30 years, that they would have actually been executed. Successive Home Secretaries had always reprieved persons sentenced to death in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man where the death sentence for murder could still be passed and the Royal Prerogative was observed http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/ti meline.html

[pete-duel]

carrying a radleys handbag should be a capital offence though lol

[mrhelpfull]

no you cant get hanged in the UK, how many times have a policeman been murderd in this country and the murderer got so called life, I remember the p.c who was killed and decapertated in the Brixton riots, what happend to killer, please look it up, o and not from a BBC website you wont get the truth there, sorry about my rant but this country is a joke. hang the ******** I say.

[kevo2k7]

i guarantee if sum1 killed our queen then life wud mean life.

[dan_999uk]

No, capital punishment is no longer available in the United Kingdom since the Criminal Justice Bill 1998 removed this punishment for High Treason and piracy with violence.

The European Convention of Human Rights was signed by the UK in 1999, formally abolishing capital punishment.

[Loosehead]

As Dan says, when we ran our own affairs there where a few things that could technically attract the death penalty, they where: High Treason (I guess regicide would come into this), Piracy on the high seas and Arson on HM docks. However now that we are subjugated by the EU we no longer make the rules so to answer your question, no, there is no capital punishment regardless of the crime.

[jno]

now come on Loosehead, we'd already abolished the death penalty for ourselves before we signed up to the European convention. The basic reason was that innocent people were being executed, which seems like a good reason to me.

[jake-the-peg]

Which is a load of old tosh because we abolished Capital punishment way before we joined the EU.

At which point the remaining capital offences were pretty much theoretical anyway.

Arson in a Naval Dockyard ceased to be a capital offence in 1971 2 years before we joined the EU. The last treason execution was in 1946.

Mr helpfull is talking about Keith Blakelock. His supposed killers served 4 years until the court of appeal decided the evidence against them had been fabricated. 2 police officers stood trial for this but were acquitted. Later further evidence came to light and someone was arrested for Blakelocks murder.

Funny mrhelpfull should bring this one up because it looks like a prime example of where the death penalty would have executed the wrong men!

[Loosehead]

In the main jno, yes, but the theorectical cases remained and where often the subject of trivia quizes etc. I think that is what the questioner is referring too.

[jno]

Loosehead, this is the relevant piece from Wikipedia; feel free to tell me if it's incorrect, but it seems to say we signed up to the final bit of the European convention as recently as 2003, long after the penalty had actually been removed for all crimes in this country.

The Criminal Damage Act 1971 abolished the offence of arson in royal dockyards.

The Naval Discipline Act 1957 reduced the scope of capital espionage from "all spies for the enemy" to spies on naval ships or bases.[5] Later the Armed Forces Act 1981 abolished the death penalty for espionage.[3] (In 1911 the Official Secrets Act had created another offence of espionage which carried a maximum sentence of fourteen years.)

Under a House of Lords amendment to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 the death penalty was abolished for treason and piracy with violence, replacing it with life imprisonment (not mandatory).

On May 20, 1998, the House of Commons voted to ratify the 6th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting capital punishment except "in time of war or imminent threat of war." The last remaining provisions for the death penalty under military jurisdiction (including in wartime) were removed when the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force on 9 November 1998. The UK later (10 October 2003) acceded to the 13th Protocol, which prohibits the death penalty under all circumstances.

[Loosehead]

Ok fair enough jno, I guess the signing up in 1998 was the final remnant of capital punishment.

[ruby27]

Just in case you were checking out the likely consequence for yourself prior to commiting murder. Now whatever. whoever you will not get capital punishment. But, don't do it, stick to aliens and kissing all the pretty girls.