Hanging stopped in Scotland with the last execution of Henry John Burnett in 1963, though the practice was formally suspended across the UK by the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 and made permanent in 1969, aligning Scotland with wider UK legal changes after its last real-world use.
Despite being a bustling centre of commerce, the Grassmarket has a much darker side as a place of execution. From 1660 until the last hanging in 1784, many hundreds of people met their end here.
Abstract. Dr Edward Pritchard, a Glasgow medical practitioner, was the last person to be executed in public in Glasgow. In a famous trial of the time, he was condemned to death for murdering his wife and his mother-in-law, and he was hanged on Glasgow Green in 1865.
273 people were publicly hanged in Scotland between 1800 and 1868, comprising 259 men and 14 women. A further 207 were sentenced to death but reprieved or respited. At least 39 men and 3 women received the death sentence for murder between 1869 and 1899. Of these 16 men and 1 woman were subsequently hanged.
The last executions by hanging took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder (in 1969 in Great Britain and in 1973 in Northern Ireland).
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 unfinished story of the last woman executed in Britain
In 1955, Ruth Ellis was hanged for killing her abusive partner, a scandal that gripped the nation. But the murder investigation was flawed and incomplete, and eventually, Ellis' case was a catalyst for abolishing Britain's death penalty.
Henry John Burnett (5 January 1942 – 15 August 1963) was the last man to be hanged in Scotland, and the first in Aberdeen since 1891. He was tried at the high court in Aberdeen from 23 to 25 July 1963 for the murder of merchant seaman Thomas Guyan.
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).
What country in Europe still has the death penalty?
The five countries with the highest number of executions in 2024 were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen. Belarus is the only country in Europe that still retains the death penalty. Executions also continue to be carried out in the United States.
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.
Who was the Scottish woman who survived the hanging?
Maggie Dickson, a Musselburgh fishwife, was convicted in Edinburgh in 1728 for murdering her own illegitimate child. The story goes that as her body was on the way to interment after the hanging, the coffin moved and Margaret stepped out, completely unharmed.
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.
Styllou Christofi. Styllou Pantopiou Christofi (Greek: Στυλλού Χριστοφή; 1900 – 15 December 1954) was a Greek Cypriot woman hanged in Britain for murdering her daughter-in-law. She was the penultimate woman to be executed in Britain, followed in 1955 by Ruth Ellis.
The guillotine cut first gained popularity among subculture-ascribing women in the second half of the 1790s, taking hold after the Reign of Terror, during which 17,000 recorded executions — mostly by guillotine — took place. Beheading required that victims' hair be cut short, allowing easy access to the neck.
When clearing Robespierre's neck, executioner Charles-Henri Sanson tore off the bandage that was holding his shattered jaw in place, causing him to produce an agonised scream until his death. He was guillotined at the same place where King Louis XVI, Danton and Desmoulins had been executed.
The higher functions of the brain cease activity once the blood supply, and therefore oxygen transport, is interrupted. Usually there is about 4 or 5 seconds of consciousness following the complete cessation of the circulation.
People were drawn to the drama, the gossip, and the communal nature of the events, and although their purpose was to subdue violence and excitement, it was not unheard of for crowds to become a little too raucous, especially if the prisoner received a pardon, or the executioner did a shoddy job.
The Human Rights Act formally abolished the death penalty in the UK. This means that a public official, including the police or courts, cannot execute someone or sentence them to death as punishment for something they have done. This applies in all circumstances, including during peacetime and times of conflict.
When was the last person hanged for treason in the UK?
The last execution for treason in the United Kingdom was held in 1946. William Joyce (also known as Lord Haw Haw) stood accused of levying war against King George VI by travelling to Germany in the early months of World War II and taking up employment as a broadcaster of pro-Nazi propaganda to British radio audiences.
