Death Penalty in UK Law

Leading Cases
  • Boyce et Al v R
    • Privy Council
    • 07 Julio 2004

    If their Lordships were called upon to construe section 15(1) of the Constitution, they would be of opinion that it was inconsistent with a mandatory death penalty for murder. The reasoning of the Board in Reyes v The Queen [2002] 2 AC 235, which was in turn heavily influenced by developments in international human rights law and the jurisprudence of a number of other countries, including states in the Caribbean, is applicable and compelling.

  • Patrick Reyes v The Queen
    • Privy Council
    • 11 Marzo 2002

  • Matthew v Trinidad and Tobago
    • Privy Council
    • 07 Julio 2004

    On the other hand, simply to leave the sentence to be carried out, subject to the decision of the President, appears to their Lordships unfair to Mr Matthew. He has been given the expectation of a review of his sentence, additional to the possibility of presidential commutation, of which he is now deprived. Their Lordships think that it would be a cruel punishment for him to be executed when that possibility has been officially communicated to him and then been taken away.

  • Khan v State of Trinidad and Tobago
    • Privy Council
    • 20 Noviembre 2003

    Such a sentence, mandatorily passed in such circumstances, will be arbitrary and disproportionate. Where a jury have convicted following a direction under section 2A, sentence of death could rarely if ever represent proportionate punishment.

  • R (Lichniak) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
    • House of Lords
    • 25 Noviembre 2002

  • Daniel Dick Trimmingham v The Queen
    • Privy Council
    • 22 Junio 2009

    The first has been expressed in several different formulations, but they all carry the same message, that the death penalty should be imposed only in cases which on the facts of the offence are the most extreme and exceptional, "the worst of the worst" or "the rarest of the rare". The second principle is that there must be no reasonable prospect of reform of the offender and that the object of punishment could not be achieved by any means other than the ultimate sentence of death.

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Legislation
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Books & Journal Articles
  • Racism and white death penalty support
    • No. 18-2, June 2016
    • International Journal of Police Science and Management
    • 0000
  • A dialogue on death penalty dignity
    • No. 11-2, April 2011
    • Criminology & Criminal Justice
    • 0000
    The concept of ‘dignity’ has always played an important role in the opinions written by members of the US Supreme Court in capital punishment cases. However, the justices have failed to agree about...
  • A critique of contemporary death penalty abolitionism
    • No. 8-3, July 2006
    • Punishment & Society
    • 0000
    This essay seeks to show what is occluded by contemporary arguments in favor of abolishing the death penalty in the United States. Following an exposition of the arg...
  • Global support for the death penalty
    • No. 12-4, October 2010
    • Punishment & Society
    • 0000
    The recently released Gallup International 2000 Millennium Survey Poll collected data from individuals residing in 59 countries. The focus of this research was to analyze these data to examine whet...
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Law Firm Commentaries
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