NOVEMBER 9, 1998
It was abolished for most crimes in 1965, but the death penalty actually remained in force in Britain until November 9, 1998.
After 1965 the ultimate punishment was reserved only for treason and piracy with violence. While beheading was abolished as a method of execution for treason only in 1973, hanging remained on the statute book.
These were the last civilian offences punishable by death.
On May 20, 1998, the House of Commons voted to ratify the 6th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting capital punishment except “in time of war or imminent threat of war”.
That final exemption was removed when section 21(5) of the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force on November 9, 1998.
The last death sentences carried out in the UK took place on August 13, 1964.
John West, a 53-year-old van driver for a laundry company, was beaten and stabbed to death by Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen, who had gone to rob him at his home in Seaton, Cumberland.
At trial, each blamed the other, but the jury found both men guilty, and both were sentenced to death.
The last woman to be hanged was Ruth Ellis, a nightclub hostess who shot dead her lover, David Blakely. The jury took just 20 minutes to convict her.
Her execution, on July 13, 1955, helped strengthen support for the abolition of the death penalty.