It is often said that capital punishment is the ultimate deterrent. The Fitted-In Project is not convinced. No matter how harsh the punishment it cannot deter criminals who do not think that they will ever be brought to justice. Executions occurred and the crimes they were intended to deter continued.

The last executions in Britain happened just over 50 years ago. Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were hanged on August 13^th 1964 for the robbery and murder of John West. Just two months later Labour came to power and fulfilled a manifesto promise. Capital punishment was suspended and ultimately abolished for murder five years later. It was abolished for all offences in 1998.

Wretched

For 64 years of the last century people were hanged. Hanging women was rare, but not unheard of. More often than not it was controversial. The execution of Ruth Ellis was certainly hotly debated and remains contentious even now, but three decades earlier, the execution of Edith Thompson was worse – she was petrified of the prospect of execution and cut so wretched a figure that it traumatised the executioner. John Ellis tried to kill himself a year later. Attempting suicide was then a serious criminal offence. Ellis succeeded in taking his own life in 1932.

The use of capital punishment was debated and agonised over a few times during that period. Then, as now, it had supporters – usually slamming opponents as soft on crime, but who did it protect? Did actually deter at all? We don’t think so for the following reasons:

Deterrent Tales

Satish Sekar examines some unusual stories from the last century, mainly from Britain, but not limited to that jurisdiction. Law enforcement officers knew the consequences of murder fully, yet Britain is not the only country to have executed a police officer in the twentieth century. The USA was first and Morocco put a senior officer to death – a serial rapist.

Ernest Moss may even have used the death penalty to commit suicide by proxy. John Reginald Halliday Christie – one of Britainʼs most notorious serial killers – was fully aware of the consequences of his crimes. In addition to several murders, he chose to send an innocent man to the gallows and continued killing after Timothy Evans was wrongfully convicted and hanged. How hanging the wrong man can deter anyone has yet to be explained.

Rogues Undeterred

Among the gallery of those who should have been deterred if indeed capital punishment worked were the following: a solicitor, a would-be executioner and a friend of the chief executioner – all of whom committed murder knowing that the penalty was death.

A serving police officer went to the gallows along with two former officers, and a special constable. All of them knew full well the punishment for murder was hanging. It failed to stop them. If capital punishment can not deter people such as these, can it be considered a deterrent at all, let alone the ultimate one?

Timings

In the early hours of April 22^nd 1972 a police surgeon pronounced mixed-race transvestite Maxwell Confait dead. A fire had just been extinguished at the Doggett Road residence in Catford, South-East London. This would prove to be one of Britain’s most shameful miscarriages of justice. The victim was unsympathetic as far as investigators and even the public were concerned and there were obvious angles to look into.

Establishing the time of death was important and the fire helped to do that, as long as it was linked to the murder. It was investigated as if that was a fact, but it wasn’t. The forensic pathology – horribly botched as it was – should have made that clear from the beginning. Somehow, the significance of it was missed by everyone.

The time of death – admittedly a range – was given as earlier that night by the distinguished forensic pathologist James Cameron, who would later be severely criticised for his role in one of Australiaʼs most notorious miscarriages of justice Lindy and Michael Chamberlain – the Dingo Baby case.

At the trial in November 1972 Cameron moved it even further, saying it could have been as late as just half an hour before the fire was extinguished. This was necessary to explain the inexplicable. Why had brutal killers stayed around for hours and then started a fire there? And then knowing that they had done this why had they started some more in that area, knowing it would draw attention to themselves. This was the breakthrough information that led to the arrests and interrogative strategy.

But it was completely wrong. The fire had nothing to do with the murder. Professor Cameron’s original opinion was wrong. His change of opinion at the trial turned out to be even further wide of the mark than he had previously been. While timing death is not an exact science, especially over 40 years ago, Cameron did not check the organ for discolouration. If he had done so he would have realised that the fire had occurred over two days after Maxwell Confait was murdered – this was badly botched by Cameron to put it mildly.

Expert Errors

Cameron would prove to have eminent company in getting the time of this death badly wrong. Professor Donald Teare was one Britainʼs most eminent forensic pathologists at the time and so was Professor Keith Simpson. Both were very experienced and had distinguished themselves in their chosen field, but they too were involved in an investigation of a miscarriage of justice – one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in any jurisdiction – Timothy Evans – another vindication case¹. Evans was wrongfully convicted and hanged in 1950².

Teare was the main pathologist in that case, which became a cause célèbre three years later when a resident at the same address, John Christie was exposed as a depraved serial killer rather than the respectable witness he had been portrayed as at Evansʼ trial.His colleagues Francis Camps and Keith Simpson were also involved, but Teareʼs role was the most controversial and despite his attempts to put right the Confait case, his error – also made by Simpson and Cameron – was crass for experts of such standing.

Timings

In the early hours of April 22^nd 1972 a police surgeon pronounced mixed-race transvestite Maxwell Confait dead. A fire had just been extinguished at the Doggett Road residence in Catford, South-East London. This would prove to be one of Britain’s most shameful miscarriages of justice. The victim was unsympathetic as far as investigators and even the public were concerned and there were obvious angles to look into.

Establishing the time of death was important and the fire helped to do that, as long as it was linked to the murder. It was investigated as if that was a fact, but it wasn’t. The forensic pathology – horribly botched as it was should have made that clear from the beginning. Somehow, the significance of it was missed by everyone.

The time of death – admittedly a range – was given as earlier that night by the distinguished forensic pathologist James Cameron, who would later be severely criticised for his role in one of Australiaʼs most notorious miscarriages of justice Lindy and Michael Chamberlain – the Dingo Baby case.

At the trial in November 1972 Cameron moved it even further, saying it could have been as late as just half an hour before the fire was extinguished. This was necessary to explain the inexplicable. Why had brutal killers stayed around for hours and then started a fire there? And then knowing that they had done this why had they started some more in that area, knowing it would draw attention to themselves. This was the breakthrough information that led to the arrests and interrogative strategy.

But it was completely wrong. The fire had nothing to do with the murder. Professor Cameron’s original opinion was wrong. His change of opinion at the trial turned out to be even further wide of the mark than he had previously been. While timing death is not an exact science, especially over 40 years ago, Cameron did not check the organ for discolouration. If he had done so he would have realised that the fire had occurred over two days after Maxwell Confait was murdered – this was badly botched by Cameron to put it mildly.

Expert Errors

Cameron would prove to have eminent company in getting the time of this death badly wrong. Professor Donald Teare was one Britainʼs most eminent forensic pathologists at the time and so was Professor Keith Simpson. Both were very experienced and had distinguished themselves in their chosen field, but they too were involved in an investigation of a miscarriage of justice – one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in any jurisdiction – Timothy Evans – another vindication case¹. Evans was wrongfully convicted and hanged in 1950².

Teare was the main pathologist in that case, which became a cause célèbre three years later when a resident at the same address, John Christie was exposed as a depraved serial killer rather than the respectable witness he had been portrayed as at Evansʼ trial.His colleagues Francis Camps and Keith Simpson were also involved, but Teareʼs role was the most controversial and despite his attempts to put right the Confait case, his error – also made by Simpson and Cameron – was crass for experts of such standing.