Bloody Code

The "Bloody Code" was a series of laws in England, Wales and Ireland in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries which imposed the death penalty for a wide range of crimes, many of which would be considered minor by later standards. Between 1688 and 1820, the total number of capital crimes in England and Wales grew from about 50 to over 200. Most of the new statutes focused on the protection of property. The most significant component of the Bloody Code was the Black Act 1723, which was originally structured as short-term, emergency legislation but was later extended and expanded. Paradoxically, the total number of actual executions continued to decrease even as the total number of capital crimes increased. As capital punishment declined, penal transportation with indentured servitude became a more common sentence. In 1785, Australia was deemed suitable for transporting convicts, and over one-third of all criminals convicted between 1788 and 1867 were sent there. The Bloody Code listed 21 categories of capital crimes in the eighteenth century. By 1823, the Judgment of Death Act made the death penalty discretionary for most crimes, and by 1861, the number of capital offences had been reduced to five. The last execution in the United Kingdom took place in 1964, and the death penalty was abolished for various crimes in the following years.

The "Bloody Code" was a series of laws in England, Wales and Ireland in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries which imposed the death penalty for a wide range of crimes, many of which would be considered minor by later standards. Between 1688 and 1820, the total number of capital crimes in England and Wales grew from about 50 to over 200. Most of the new statutes focused on the protection of property. The most significant component of the Bloody Code was the Black Act 1723, which was originally structured as short-term, emergency legislation but was later extended and expanded. Paradoxically, the total number of actual executions continued to decrease even as the total number of capital crimes increased. As capital punishment declined, penal transportation with indentured servitude became a more common sentence. In 1785, Australia was deemed suitable for transporting convicts, and over one-third of all criminals convicted between 1788 and 1867 were sent there. The Bloody Code listed 21 categories of capital crimes in the eighteenth century. By 1823, the Judgment of Death Act made the death penalty discretionary for most crimes, and by 1861, the number of capital offences had been reduced to five. The last execution in the United Kingdom took place in 1964, and the death penalty was abolished for various crimes in the following years. ==History== In 1689 there were 50 offences on the statute book punishable by death in England and Wales, but that number had almost quadrupled by 1776, and it reached 220 by the end of the century. Most of the new laws introduced during that period were concerned with the defence of property, which some commentators have interpreted as a form of class suppression of the poor by the rich. George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, expressed a contemporary view when he said that "Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen." Grand larceny was one of the crimes that drew the death penalty; it was defined as the theft of goods worth more than 12 pence, about one-twentieth of the weekly wage for a skilled worker at the time. As the 18th century proceeded, jurors often deliberately under-assessed the value of stolen goods in order to avoid a mandatory death sentence. In the Kingdom of Ireland, a subordinate but separate state, a similar "Bloody Code" existed, but there were not as many capital crimes. ==Relaxation of the law== In 1823, the Judgement of Death Act 1823 made the death penalty discretionary for all crimes except treason and murder. Gradually during the middle of the nineteenth century the number of capital offences was reduced, and by 1861 was down to five (not counting offences under military law). The last execution in the UK took place in 1964, and the death penalty was legally abolished in the following years for the crimes of: Murder, 1969 in England, Wales and Scotland, and 1973 in Northern Ireland Arson in royal dockyards, 1971 Espionage, 1981 Piracy with violence, September 1998 Treason, September 1998 Six military offences, November 1998 Reintroduction of the death penalty under any circumstances was prohibited by treaty (Protocol 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights) in 2004. ==See also== Black Act 1723 ==External links== Amnesty International: History of the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the UK Rough justice – Victorian style, BBC News

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