Restricted Death

After months of parliamentary wrangling that cut across party lines and set the House of Lords in bitter opposition to the House of Commons, a bewigged clerk intoned La Reine le veult, and the Queen wishing it, a bill restricting capital punishment became law. Under the new Homicide Act, murderers convicted in Britain will be hanged only if their crime was:

1) committed in the course or furtherance of theft,

2) committed in resisting or avoiding arrest, or escaping from legal custody,

3) committed against police or prison officers or those assisting them,

4) committed by shooting of firearms or causing explosions (but not by poisoning),

5) committed for a second or subsequent time.

In actual fact, no one in Britain has been hanged by law since the debate waxed furious in August 1955, though six convicted murderers are currently sentenced to die under the old law.

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