The last executions in the UK were on August 13, 1964, when Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were hanged simultaneously for murder, at separate prisons in Manchester and Liverpool. Though capital punishment for murder was suspended shortly after (1965) and fully abolished in 1969 (1973 for Northern Ireland), the death penalty remained for treason until 1998, but Evans and Allen were the final people executed for any crime in Britain.
Ruth Ellis (née Neilson; 9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was a Welsh-born nightclub hostess and convicted murderer who became the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom following the fatal shooting of her lover, David Blakely.
Marion Bowman Jr. Jessie Dean Hoffman Jr. Norman Mearle Grim Jr.
The last execution in the UK took place in August 1964. The following year, Parliament passed a law suspending the death penalty across Great Britain (this did not extend to Northern Ireland) for all crimes except high treason, “piracy with violence”, arson in royal dockyards, and espionage.
Derek William Bentley (30 June 1933 – 28 January 1953) was a British man who was hanged for the murder of a policeman during an attempted burglary. His accomplice, Christopher Craig, then aged 16, was convicted of the murder.
The Government has no plans to bring back capital punishment.
Race of Defendants Executed in the U.S. Since 1976
The world's longest-serving death row inmate was Iwao Hakamada from Japan, who spent 46-47 years on death row before being exonerated in 2024 for a 1966 quadruple murder, a case marked by coerced confessions and fabricated evidence, leading to a record compensation payout for his wrongful conviction. Other notable long-stayers include Raymond Riles in the U.S., who spent 45 years on death row, and Richard Jordan, who was executed after a very long legal battle in Mississippi in 2025.
At 8am on 13 August 1964, two men, convicted just a few weeks earlier of murder, were led to the gallows at separate prisons in Manchester and Liverpool. No one involved knew it at the time, but Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were the last executions before capital punishment was abolished in Britain.
Ellis was hanged at London's Holloway Prison. She shot Blakely outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead, London, following a tumultuous relationship involving infidelity on both sides.
Alice Molland was sentenced at Exeter Castle, Devon, in 1685 for "bewitching" three of her neighbours. She was presumed to have been executed in the city's Heavitree area in the same year, making her England's last executed witch.
Josef Jakobs: The last spy to be executed at the Tower
Josef Jakobs was the only spy to be executed at the Tower during the Second World War. He was also the last person to be sentenced to death inside the Tower's walls.
Charles I remains the only English monarch to have been tried and executed for treason. In the years after his death, the muddle of Parliament, sober life under the Puritans and ultimately failure to establish a functioning government meant people started viewing Charles I differently.
In 2024: China remains the top global executioner. Though precise figures are classified as state secrets, human rights organizations estimate thousands are executed annually. Iran carried out at least 972 executions—more than any other country with publicly reported numbers.
Black and Hispanic people represent 31% of the U.S. population, but 53% of death row inmates—41.9% and 11.3% respectively (American Progress, 2019). The death row population is over 41% Black, even though Black people make up about 13% of the U.S. population (Prison Policy Initiative, 2016).
The state of Texas alone conducted 596 executions, over 1/3 of the total; the states of Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma make up over half the total. 17 executions have been conducted by the federal government. Executions increased in frequency until 1999; 98 prisoners were executed that year.
The shortest time on death row before execution in modern U.S. history, particularly in Texas, is Joe Gonzales, who spent 252 days (about 8 months) before his execution in 1996, while another notable short time was Steven Renfro at 263 days; these are significantly shorter than the average of over a decade, showcasing how quickly some cases can proceed due to streamlined appeals, though many cases take decades.
These are China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, the United States, and Yemen. In the United States, this ended in 2005 with the Supreme Court case Roper v. Simmons, in Nigeria in 2015 by law, and in Saudi Arabia in 2020 by royal decree.
Amnesty International praised Zimbabwe's move as a positive step for abolition in the region.
Guillotin's main reason for this was that decapitation using the guillotine would be more humane. The inclined blade would fall so rapidly that death would be almost painless. This was not a new system of execution; it was already in use in other countries, be it with a straight or round blade.
The last executions in the United Kingdom were by hanging, and took place in 1964; capital punishment for murder was suspended in 1965 and finally abolished in 1969 (1973 in Northern Ireland).
States without the death penalty have lower murder rates than states that still use capital punishment. On Amnesty International's website, 88.2 % of experts in criminology reported they do not think the death penalty deters murder. They also believe that existing research does not support deterrence theory.