Punishing the Criminal Corpse, 1700-1840

Punishing the Criminal Corpse, 1700-1840
Author :
Publisher : Saint Philip Street Press
Total Pages : 220
Release :
ISBN-10 : 101328898X
ISBN-13 : 9781013288982
Rating : 4/5 (982 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Punishing the Criminal Corpse, 1700-1840 by : Peter King

Download or read book Punishing the Criminal Corpse, 1700-1840 written by Peter King and published by Saint Philip Street Press. This book was released on 2020-10-09 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the different types of post-execution punishments and other aggravated execution practices, the reasons why they were advocated, and the decision, enshrined in the Murder Act of 1752, to make two post-execution punishments, dissection and gibbeting, an integral part of sentences for murder. It traces the origins of the Act, and then explores the ways in which Act was actually put into practice. After identifying the dominance of penal dissection throughout the period, it looks at the abandonment of burning at the stake in the 1790s, the rapid decline of hanging in chains just after 1800, and the final abandonment of both dissection and gibbeting in 1832 and 1834. It concludes that the Act, by creating differentiation in levels of penalty, played an important role within the broader capital punishment system well into the nineteenth century. While eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century historians have extensively studied the 'Bloody Code' and the resulting interactions around the 'Hanging Tree', they have largely ignored an important dimension of the capital punishment system - the courts extensive use of aggravated and post-execution punishments. With this book, Peter King aims to rectify this neglected historical phenomenon. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.


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