The Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868 ( 31 & 32 Vict. c. 24) received

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

on 29 May 1868, putting an end to

public execution A public execution is a form of capital punishment which "members of the general public may voluntarily attend." This definition excludes the presence of only a small number of witnesses called upon to assure executive accountability. The purpose ...

s for murder in the United Kingdom. The act required that all prisoners sentenced to death for murder be executed within the walls of the prison in which they were being held, and that their bodies be buried in the prison grounds. It was prompted at least in part by the efforts of reformers such as

Sir Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–183 ...

and

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

, who called in the national press for an end to the "grotesque spectacle" of public executions. Abolition of public executions was one of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1864-1866. A similar measure, the ''Capital Punishment within Prisons Bill'', had been introduced in 1867, but failed for lack of parliamentary time. The first execution under the new law was carried out by

William Calcraft William Calcraft (11 October 1800 – 13 December 1879) was a 19th-century English hangman, one of the most prolific of British executioners. It is estimated in his 45-year career he carried out 450 executions. A cobbler by trade, ...

on 13 August 1868 at Maidstone Gaol; 18-year-old Thomas Wells was hanged for the murder of Edward Walshe, the stationmaster at

Dover Priory railway station Dover Priory railway station is the southern terminus of the South Eastern Main Line. It is the main station serving the town of Dover, in Kent, England; the other is , on the outskirts. It is down the line from London Victoria. The station ...

. Calcraft had previously carried out the last public execution in the UK, when he hanged the

Fenian The word ''Fenian'' () served as an umbrella term for the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and their affiliate in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood. They were secret political organisations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ...

Michael Barrett in front of

Newgate Prison Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey, just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, the pr ...

on 26 May 1868 for his part in the 1867

Clerkenwell Outrage The Clerkenwell explosion, also known as the Clerkenwell Outrage, was a bombing attack carried out by the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in London on 13 December 1867. Members of the IRB, who were nicknamed "Fenians", exploded a bomb to tr ...

. The Act applied only to prisoners "sentenced on any indictment or inquisition for murder" and not those convicted of other offences carrying the death penalty (such as

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

). In theory, therefore, those convicted of such offences could be executed in public up until the final abolition of capital punishment in the United Kingdom in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

.Law Commission,
Codification of the Criminal Law – Treason Sedition and Allied Offences
' (Law Com Working Paper No 72, 1977), para 35 In practice, however, all executions for treason during the 20th century were carried out within prison walls.

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* * * * {{refend United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1868 Capital punishment in the United Kingdom May 1868

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