ABSTRACT
Social class as well as gender ensured differentiation in punishment. Capital punishment was therefore designed to be exemplary rather than efficient in nature. In a society with no professional police force even the most minor crimes carried the death penalty because of what was believed to be its deterrent value. The first Parliamentary motion to abolish capital punishment was introduced in 1840 by William Ewart and received over 90 votes. Ewart subsequently formed the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment whose members campaigned nationally for total abolition. A motion, proposing the abolition of public execution in 1864 was defeated, but in July that year a Royal Commission was given the task of investigating issues around capital punishment. Two years later it had recommended the abolition of public executions, and following extensive debate in the House of Commons the Capital Punishment Amendment Act was finally passed in 1868 abolishing public executions.
