Crime & Punishment – the Story of Capital
Punishment
BBC, ‘Timeshift’, 1st broadcast, 5th April 2011
Access at YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfJ0I9Qsea8&playnext=1&list=PL2615DF41A122
ADE1&feature=results_video
Parts I & II
1. According to Prof Vic Gattrell why was capital punishment used so frequently
in the eighteenth century?
2. What was the atmosphere like at a public hanging?
3. According to the Prof Tim Hitchcock what percentage of those who were liable
to face the death penalty were actually executed in the period 1770-1830?
4. How did Enlightenment thinkers like Emanuel Kant justify the use of capital
punishment?
5. How and why did attitudes change in the 1830s?
6. What changes in attitudes does the historian Emma Griffin believe we can see
in this later period?
7. What was the response of writers like Dickens and Thackeray? Why do their
views matter so much?
8. What religious and moral justification was given for capital punishment?
Part III
1. What evidence is there of a more professional & dignified approach towards
capital punishment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?
2. What effect did the actions of those such as Violet Van der Elst have on the
campaign for abolition?
3. Did the execution of Nazi war criminal help or hinder the abolitionists?
Part IV
1. How did the case of Derek Bentley lead to a change in attitudes towards the
death sentence?
2. Why does Prof Roy Greenslade feel that Ruth Ellis’ execution have particular
resonance with the British public?
3. What change did the Homicide Act (1957) introduce?
4. What part did the judiciary play in changing attitudes in the 1950s and 60s?
5. What part did Sidney Silverman play in the abolition of capital punishment?
6. What was the impact of the 1964 Panorama debate on capital punishment?
Part V
1. What impact did the Moor Murders (1963-5) have on public attitudes towards
debates
2. What are the arguments put forward by Simon Heffer and Geoffrey Robertson
QC on the issue of capital punishment?
3. How have attitudes changed in the US?
4. What factors have driven the changes?
Part VI
1. What influence did documentaries like ‘Fourteen Days in May’ have on the
debate over capital punishment?
2. What are the problems in using such documentaries as a measure of public
support for abolition?
3. What was the impact of the Guild Four and Birmingham Six on the debate?
4. What did the Crime & Disorder Act (1998) achieve?
5. What was the final outcome for the Derek Bentley case?
Extension: produce a 1 side A4 factoid on Albert Pierrepoint. In particular, gather
evidence on public attitudes towards Pierrepoint as a result of his high media profile