Capital Punishment - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition capital-punishment

Definition :

Capital punishment, inflicted in pursuance of the (English) Capital Punishment Amendment Act, 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 24) (before which executions were public), within the prison in which the offender is confined at the time of execution, in the compulsory presence of the sheriff, gaoler, chaplain, and surgeon, and such other officers of the prison as the sheriff requires, and also in the discretionary presence of any justice of the peace for the county, etc., and of such 'relatives of the prisoner, or other persons as it seems to the sheriff or visiting justices proper to admit within the prison.'-Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Criminal Law,' where see the Rules of 1888 under the Act. See SENTENCE OF DEATH.

The mode in the United Kingdom is hanging, but for high treason the Crown may alter it to beheading: see the (English) Treason Act, 1814 (54 Geo. 3, c. 146), as amended by s. 31 of the Forfeiture Act, 1870.