Pierrepoint (movie)

Let Him Have It

Last Public Hanging

Newgate Gaol in London

The last man to be publicly hanged in Great Britain was 29 year old Michael Barrett, who was a member of the Fenians (the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood.) His crime? The Clerkenwell bombing in 1867 which killed 12 people and severely wounded many more.

Barret delivered a passionate speech in court before sentence was passed:

"I am far from denying, nor will the force of circumstances compel me to deny my love of my native land. I love my country and if it is murderous to love Ireland dearer than I love my life, then it is true, I am a murderer. If my life were ten times dearer than it is and if I could by any means, redress the wrongs of that persecuted land by the sacrifice of my life, I would willingly and gladly do so."

On 26th May, 1868 in front of thousands who were jeering and singing "Rule Britannia", Michael Barrett was hanged outside the walls of Newgate Prison. The hangman was William Calcraft.

Execution @ Tyburn

Penderyn

14 Days in May

Fourteen Days in May is a documentary directed by Paul Hamann. The program recounts the final days before the execution of Edward Earl Johnson, an American prisoner convicted of rape and murder. Johnson protested his innocence and claimed that his confession had been made under duress. He was executed in Mississippi's gas chamber on May 20, 1987.

China Rocks

This was an article I wrote in 2009, it could be wriiten today for that woman in Bali.

China they have a saying regarding the death penalty - kill the chicken to scare off the monkeys - or words to that effect, and I am in total agreement. If you are greedy (or stupid) enough to attempt to smuggle drugs into China then you must accept the fate that awaits if you are caught: execution often by firing squad.
Todays execution of EU national, Akmal Shaikh, has stirred up the issue once again, with Britain condemning China and the tabloids screaming 'Mentally Ill Man Executed!' The shock! The horror! (The bile inducing support for criminals). What exactly are the UK angry at? China carrying out THEIR punishment for THEIR laws? I find it arrogant in the extreme that Britain thinks it can tell another country they shouldn't execute a criminal because he/she is British, especially a country with zero tolerance toward criminal behaviour as opposed to here in the UK where we seem to go out of our way to make criminals as comfortable as possible.
We have people who do not understand why anyone would risk smuggling drugs in such places as China and trot out mental health issues as some kind of excuse for their transgressions. Allow me to help here: there are, believe it or not, bad and greedy people in this world, people with clear minds (before they recieve a death sentence) who are more than willing to attempt to make easy money on the smuggling circuit just like there are burglars who continue to steal knowing they could end up in one of our plush prisons.
Shaikh tried his chances, lost and is in his grave because of it. Britain's lily livered can huff and puff all they want but the smuggler is dead and good riddance to him. And no, this execution won't deter another criminal to try his hand at smuggling because its plain to anyone that the death penalty isn't about deterence - its a punishment. However we'll chalk it up as a bonus if somebody is indeed put off by these events.
There should be no sympathy directed at Shaikh, nor should China be shunned for following their laws. They ought to be applauded and I only wish we treated our criminals with the same strict hand. (I doubt they have feral teenage yobs terrorizing pensioners and swigging cider on street corners).
Drugs cause an infinite amount of misery, which rots communities. One less smuggler is a reason to be championed.
'Oh but this poor man was mentally ill!' Cry the cotton hearts. Yes dears, they all try that stroke on death row, shame on you for believing it. If Shaikh had gotten away with this he would have been taking his mental illness all the way to the bank. Think about that.

Gallows Ticket

Jonathan Wild was 'thief taker General' and ironically the most infamous criminal in London in th 18th century. He was hnged at Tyburn in 1725. As sentence was passed he felt terrified and asked for a reprieve but was refused. He could not eat or go to church, and suffered from insanity and gout. On the morning of his execution, in fear of death, he attempted suicide by drinking a large dose of laudanum, but because he was weakened by fasting, he vomited violently and sank into a coma that he would not awaken from.
When Wild was taken to the gallows at Tyburn on 24 May 1725, Daniel Defoe said that the crowd was far larger than any they had seen before and that, instead of any celebration or commiseration with the condemned;

"wherever he came, there was nothing but hollowing and huzzas,
as if it had been upon a triumph."

Wild's hanging was a great event, and tickets were sold in advance for the best vantage points (see the reproduction of the gallows ticket above). Even in a year with a great many macabre spectacles, Wild drew an especially large and boisterous crowd. Eighteen-year-old Henry Fielding was in attendance. Wild was accompanied by William Sperry and the two Roberts Sanford and Harpham, three of the four prisoners who had been condemned to die with Wild a few days before.[34] Because he was heavily drugged, he was the last to die after the three of them. The hangman, Richard Arnet, had been a guest at Wild's wedding.