The Homicide Act of 1957 was a landmark in British law, as it was the first time different categories of murder were distinguished. This act limited the death penalty to five specific categories of what would now be known as capital murder:
- Murder committed in the course or furtherance of theft.
- Murder by shooting or causing explosions.
- Murder in the course of or for the purpose of resisting, avoiding, or preventing lawful arrest or effecting or assisting an escape from lawful custody.
- Murder of a police officer in the execution of his duty or of a person assisting him.
- Murder by a prisoner of a prison officer in the execution of his duty or of a person assisting him.
Additionally, it allowed for the execution of a person who committed a second separate murder on a different occasion from the first.
Between March 1957 and November 1965, 65 people were sentenced to death under the provisions of this Act, of whom 29 men were hanged. A few of these cases will be examined on this site, namely Vivian Teed, Dennis Howard, Ronald Marwood, and Gunter Podola.
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The Case of Dennis Howard
Dennis Howard became the second man to be executed under the provisions of the new Act. Unemployed 24-year-old Howard, from Lones Road, Smethwick (then part of Staffordshire), was fascinated with guns and held quite a collection of them.
He was convicted of the capital murder of 21-year-old David Alan Keasey during an attempted robbery of Keasey’s gentlemen’s outfitters store. David Keasey ran his business on Wolverhampton Street, Dudley. On Friday, May 17th, 1957, Howard entered the shop armed with a Mauser pistol, asking the owner to show him a particular sweater.
Mr. Keasey went to get the item, and Howard drew his gun and threatened him. A struggle ensued, during which David Keasey suffered a mortal wound to the back.
Arrest and Trial
Howard was arrested and charged on May 24th with capital murder under Section 5 of the Homicide Act of 1957, which had come into force in March of that year. The charge was for murder committed in the course or furtherance of theft and also involving a firearm.
In a statement to the police, Howard admitted that he had cocked the pistol prior to entering the shop. He was remanded in custody and later committed for trial at Worcester Assizes, where he appeared before Mr. Justice Hinchcliffe on the 17th and 18th of October.
This was Mr. Justice Hinchcliffe’s second capital murder trial under the new act resulting in execution. He had previously condemned John Wilson Vickers at Carlisle in July 1957, who was the first person executed under the Act (hanged at Durham in July 1957).
The Trial Proceedings
Mr. G. G. Baker QC led the prosecution, assisted by Patrick Medd, while Howard’s defense was handled by Mr. R. G. Micklethwait QC and Mr. S. Brown.
Howard gave evidence himself, claiming the gun had gone off accidentally and that he had not intended to kill David Keasey. However, the prosecution rebutted this with the evidence that the gun was cocked before entering the shop.
The jury returned a guilty verdict, which the judge endorsed.
Imprisonment and Appeal
Worcester prison no longer had execution facilities (the last hanging there was in 1919), so Howard was transferred to the Condemned Suite at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham. The execution was originally scheduled for Wednesday, November 6th, but this was delayed due to an appeal.
The appeal was heard in London by The Lord Chief Justice, Rayner Goddard, sitting with Mr. Justice Devlin and Mr. Justice Pearson on November 18th. Howard’s barrister, Mr. R. G. Micklethwait, argued three grounds for appeal:
- It had been stated at trial that Howard was previously charged with carrying a gun, which the defense asked the judge to rule inadmissible.
- The prosecution used evidence from a psychiatrist’s report during cross-examination.
- The judge had used two words from Howard’s statement that should have been omitted—presumably relating to the gun being cocked before entering the shop.
Lord Goddard, a notably robust and experienced judge, along with his colleagues, dismissed the appeal, stating there was “abundant evidence to justify the jury’s verdict.”
Execution and Aftermath
On December 3rd, it was reported that Home Secretary Richard Austen Butler had declined to intervene, and the law would take its course.
Harry Allen and Royston Rickard executed Howard at 9:30 am on Wednesday, December 4th.
Comment
Was Lord Goddard right to reject Howard’s appeal, and was the Home Secretary correct not to reprieve? I believe they were.
If Howard had not intended to kill, why had he loaded the gun beforehand? For most people, having an automatic pistol pointed at them would ensure compliance with the gunman’s instructions. Howard could not have anticipated that David Keasey would resist, and sadly it was an act of courage that cost both men their lives.
Howard may or may not have known the details of the 1957 Homicide Act, but he would have known that murder could result in hanging. The Act de-capitalized some forms of murder but did not add any new categories. In other words, had the offence been committed a few years earlier, the outcome would most likely have been the same.
With special thanks to Monty Dart for help in researching this article.
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