Execution of the Capital Sentence
| Date | 01 January 1940 |
| Published date | 01 January 1940 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834000400114 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Execution
of
the Capital Sentence
A
PRESS
report of scenes at the prison gate after arecent
execution referred to the posting of " the usual notice ".
An actual sight of one of the documents in question has
prompted the writer to investigate more exactly what the law
requires on this and
other
points in connection with the
execution of
the
capital sentence.
It
is a common fallacy to suppose
that
acondemned man
has a fixed
number
of days to live after being sentenced to
death.
The
sentence, indeed, may not be executed until the
ten days allowed for giving notice of appeal has expired, or
until after the hearing of
the
appeal, if one is brought(Criminal
Appeal Act, 1907, section 7). But after that, the exact date
of the execution appears to be in the discretion of the sheriff,
subject to a recommendation in the Home Office rules of
19°2,
that
for the sake of uniformity the execution should
take place at 8 a.m. on any weekday
but
Monday in the
week following
the
third
Sunday after the date of sentence.
The
sheriff, we understand, fixes a provisional date when
sentence has been
passed;
but
now
that
an appeal is almost
always brought in
murder
cases, the above rule is somewhat
of a dead
letter;
for a respite beyond the three weeks is
usually necessary, and the actual date is, we gather, fixed by
the
sheriff after consultation with
the
Home
Secretary, who
even up to the last moment may recommend areprieve.
The
exclusion of Monday is, no doubt, to be accounted
for by a subsequent rule, which requires the person
or
persons
engaged to carry
out
the
execution to be in the prison by
4o'clock on the afternoon preceding, and to remain there
until they have completed
the
execution and have been given
permission to leave.
It
is said
that
this rule was made in
125
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