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The paperwork and administration of
judicial hanging in England and Wales. |
When a person was sentenced to death post 1868 a written copy of the sentence, signed by the Clerk of the Court was sent to the prison, along with the prisoner, as the warrant to admit the prisoner and place them in the condemned cell. This document gave no date for the execution. It should be noted that there was no formal death warrant issued post 1837. By the 1920’s Form 274 was completed by the governor informing the Prison Commissioners that he had received a prisoner under sentence of death. Form 275 was also completed by the governor and sent to the sheriff.
On the 5th of January 1902 the Home Office issued another set of rules
for carrying out executions, which read as follows. (The use of upper case
letters is as in the original document)
For the sake of uniformity it is recommended that Execution should take place
in the week following the third Sunday after the day on which the sentence was
passed, on any week day but Monday, and at 8 a.m. The mode of execution and the ceremonial
attending it is to be the same as heretofore in use. A public notice, under the hand of the
Governor of the Prison, of the date and time appointed for the execution to be
posted on the Prison Gate not less than twelve hours before the execution and
to remain until the inquest has been held.
The Bell of the Prison, or if arrangements can be made for the purpose,
the Bell of the Parish or neighbouring church to be tolled for 15 minutes after
the execution. The person or persons
engaged to carry out the execution should be required to report themselves at
the Prison not later than 4 o’clock on the afternoon proceeding the completed
the execution and until permission is given them to leave.
The document finished with “Approved by the Secretary of State” and was signed.
The requirement for the prison or nearby church bell to be tolled before and
during an execution was thus amended to require it only to be rung after the
hanging had been carried out. The
practice of raising a black flag on the prison flag pole ceased. Those who gathered outside prisons on the
morning of execution now had to content themselves with the posting of the
official notices on or by the main gate after the prisoner’s death had been
certified.
An execution box was sent by train from Pentonville or Wandsworth to the prison in which the execution was to take place. It contained two nooses, one new and one used, together with all the other equipment required.
After 1907 if there was no appeal or the appeal was dismissed, the High Sheriff of the county wrote to the governor of the prison setting the time and date of the execution. The sheriff also wrote a letter of appointment to the chosen hangman from the Home Office List. The governor appointed the assistant(s). The “Memorandum of Instructions for Carrying out an Execution” was sent to the prison for each hanging. The day before the execution a notice (Document No. 278) was posted on the prison gate giving the name of the prisoner and the time of the execution. After the execution Documents No. 279 and 280, respectively the Certificate of Surgeon and the Declaration of Sheriff were posted on the gate. The first simply certified death and the second, signed by the sheriff or under-sheriff, the governor and the chaplain declared that “Judgement of Death was this day executed on (prisoner’s name) in Her Majesty’s Prison of (named) in our presence.” An LPC4 form was completed by the prison medical officer (left hand page) and the governor (right hand page) and sent to the Prison Commissioners. The left hand page gave the details of the prisoner i.e., name, weight, height and any physical peculiarities, together with the drop given and the cause of death, i.e., a) Dislocation of vertebrae, b) Asphyxiation. The right hand page detailed the names and addresses of the hangman and assistant and comments as to their performance. Form 276 was completed by the governor and sent to the Prison Commissioners confirming that the execution had been carried out.
The Coroner’s
inquest and the burial.
The Capital Punishment (Amendment) Act of 1868 required that the Coroner
for the county in which an execution had taken place should hold a formal
inquest as soon as possible after the hanging.
He sat with a jury and they were usually allowed to view the body and
hear evidence from the prison’s governor and surgeon and any other relevant
witnesses and were expected to reach a formal verdict that the prisoner had
died by judicial hanging. The inquest
was necessary to establish the identity of the prisoner and the cause of death
i.e. judicial hanging. From about 1938,
London Coroner, Bentley Purchase, decided that a full autopsy should be carried
out prior to the inquest. It does not
seem that this happened in all of the Shire counties and was presumably up to
the discretion of individual coroners.
After the inquest a Coroner’s
Order for Burial (Part B) was issued allowing for the prisoner to be buried
within the prison grounds. The
prisoner’s clothing “with the exception of a shirt or similar garment” was
removed and was to be burned. “The body placed in a coffin made of 1/2” wood,
either deal or pine”. From 1926 graves
could be and indeed were re-used in sequence in UK prisons after seven years
had elapsed. They could hold up to three bodies, the first being buried at a depth
of 10 feet, the next at 7’ 6” and the last at either 5’ 6” or 3 feet. After a one foot depth of earth had been
shovelled back over the coffin a 3” thick layer of charcoal was added so that
future grave diggers would know where to stop.
A register of graves was to be kept showing the location of each body.
