The End of Capital Punishment (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
The End of Capital Punishment
Introduction: private Members' bills and liberal reform
The abolition of capital punishment stands as one of the most enduring legacies of the Wilson governments of the 1960s. This reform, along with divorce reform, legalisation of abortion, and legalisation of homosexual relations, represented a major shift in British social policy. However, none of these reforms were formally introduced by the government itself. Instead, Wilson chose to keep these controversial measures out of party politics by allowing them to proceed as Private Members' Bills – legislation introduced by individual MPs who were not part of the government, rather than by ministers acting on behalf of the Cabinet.
Private Members' Bill (PMB): a bill introduced to parliament by a member of the House of Commons or Lords who is not in the government.
This procedural approach was crucial to Wilson's strategy, allowing him to allocate parliamentary time to controversial social reforms whilst avoiding the political risks of making them official Labour policy. This meant backbench MPs could champion these causes without forcing the government to take an official stance.
The journey to abolition, however, proved neither straightforward nor universally popular.
Background: the Homicide Act 1957 and growing confusion
The path toward abolition of capital punishment was complicated by earlier attempts at reform. The Conservatives had introduced the Homicide Act 1957, which attempted to distinguish between different categories of murder. Rather than clarifying the law, this Act created confusion by making certain murders punishable by death whilst classifying others as manslaughter, which carried a prison sentence instead.
This inconsistency created a deeply problematic legal framework: the question of whether someone faced execution or imprisonment could depend on technical classifications rather than the severity of the crime itself. This meant that the question of capital punishment remained unresolved and divisive throughout the early 1960s.
By the mid-1960s, the Conservatives remained somewhat divided on the issue, though they were generally more supportive of retaining capital punishment than Labour. The matter would require determined parliamentary action to achieve abolition.
Sidney Silverman and the Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Bill
Sidney Silverman was a Labour backbench MP who took the lead in introducing the Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Bill to parliament. His bill's second reading was carried by 355 votes to 170, demonstrating substantial parliamentary support for abolition. This was not the end of the matter, however, as the Conservatives deployed various procedural strategies to delay and obstruct the bill's progress through parliament.
Conservative opposition tactics
The Conservative Party employed three distinct tactics to try to stall or defeat the abolition bill:
First tactic: The Conservatives wanted the bill debated on the floor of the Commons chamber, rather than being sent to a committee for detailed examination. The Labour and Liberal parties worked together to defeat this attempt, recognising it as a delaying tactic.
This tactic exploited the fact that floor debates consume more parliamentary time than committee examinations, potentially causing the bill to run out of time in the parliamentary session.
Second tactic: Conservative MPs presented a Private Members' Bill calling for Silverman's abolition bill to be recommitted to a committee of the whole house. This procedural move would have meant the bill consumed valuable government time in the Commons, potentially causing it to be dropped altogether due to time constraints.
Third tactic: To prevent the second Conservative tactic from succeeding, a resolution was passed stating that the Commons should meet on a Wednesday morning specifically for the committee stage of the bill. This was an unusual arrangement, as parliamentary business typically did not commence on Wednesday mornings at this time.
Final Conservative obstruction: When the bill eventually passed the Commons, the House of Lords added an amendment requiring the Homicide Act 1957 to come back into force after five years unless both Houses of Parliament carried motions providing for permanent abolition. This sunset clause meant abolition would initially be temporary, requiring further parliamentary action to make it permanent.
The Moors Murders and public opinion
Between 1965 and the final debate on abolition in 1969, several high-profile murder cases kept the issue in the public consciousness. The most notorious were the Moors Murders, perpetrated by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. These killings, characterised by extreme wickedness, occurred during the period when the death penalty had been suspended but not yet permanently abolished. The arrest of Brady and Hindley came four weeks after the initial suspension of capital punishment, meaning they received life sentences rather than facing execution.
These murders, and others like them, ensured that MPs voting for abolition were acting against the expressed wishes of their constituents. Opinion polls consistently showed that public support for hanging never fell below 60%, and rose as high as 80% following crimes such as the Moors Murders. The parliamentary commitment to abolition therefore represented a clear instance of MPs prioritising their own judgment over majority public opinion.
This tension between parliamentary conviction and public sentiment created a unique political challenge for those supporting abolition.
The final debate and passage into law
The abolition debate had to be concluded before July 1970, when a general election would be held. Wilson was advised to settle the matter before the election, as it would not benefit candidates to have abolition become a campaign issue. He had to balance this concern against warnings that rushing the debate before Christmas might produce an unfavourable result. Both major parties attempted to table a censure motion, each claiming that allowing no confidence in the government would demonstrate their commitment to the issue.
The practical difficulty was that both sides wanted to use the 1969 crime figures to support their position, but these statistics were not yet available for debate. Wilson resolved the impasse by allowing a full day's debate on the matter. Callaghan promised that the 1969 crime figures would be made available the following day, thus enabling a comprehensive and fair debate on abolition.
Wilson later noted in his autobiography that all three party leaders supported abolition. The final vote saw the death penalty permanently abolished, carried by 343 votes to 185 in the Commons and by 220 votes to 174 in the Lords. The measure thus became law despite sustained Conservative opposition and contrary to the wishes of the majority of the electorate.
Two footnotes to the abolition story
Two details add poignancy and complexity to the abolition narrative:
Sidney Silverman's death: Tragically, Sidney Silverman died in 1968, before his bill became law. He therefore did not live to see the culmination of his parliamentary campaign, though his name remains permanently associated with the abolition of capital punishment in Britain.
Roy Jenkins' role: The Home Secretary most closely associated with the liberal reforms of Wilson's government was Roy Jenkins. However, Jenkins was not Home Secretary when the abolition bill was introduced in 1965; he had moved on from the Home Office to become Chancellor of the Exchequer by the time the bill finally became law. Nonetheless, Jenkins' broader support for liberal reform helped create the political environment in which abolition could succeed.
Key Points to Remember:
-
Capital punishment was abolished through a Private Members' Bill introduced by Sidney Silverman, not as official government policy, allowing Wilson to avoid making it a party political issue.
-
The bill passed its second reading by 355 to 170 votes, but Conservatives used multiple procedural tactics to delay its progress, including attempting to force full Commons debates and adding a five-year sunset clause in the Lords.
-
The abolition occurred despite consistent public opposition: opinion polls showed 60-80% of the public supported retaining hanging, particularly after high-profile cases like the Moors Murders (Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, arrested 1965).
-
The final abolition vote was carried by 343 to 185 in the Commons and 220 to 174 in the Lords, with all three party leaders supporting abolition despite public opinion running strongly against it.
-
Sidney Silverman died in 1968 before his bill became law, and Roy Jenkins (the Home Secretary most associated with liberal reforms) had moved to the Treasury by the time abolition was finalised.