United Kingdom
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Abolitionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 abolished...
- News items in the archive
- 423
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
United Kingdom is classified as Abolitionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 423 news items on United Kingdom, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- APRIL 27, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Nearly 60 per cent of Britons waned the death penalty...
Nearly 60 per cent of Britons waned the death penalty restored for terrorists who kill, an ICM poll for the BBC found
- APRIL 21, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
United Kingdom was a cosponsor and voted in favour...
United Kingdom was a cosponsor and voted in favour of the resolution on the death penalty at the 60th UN Commission on Human Rights
- APRIL 14, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
More than 150 British MPs backed a parliamentary motion...
More than 150 British MPs backed a parliamentary motion to secure justice for Kenny Richey, who had spent the last 17 years on death row in Ohio
- APRIL 14, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
More than 150 British MPs backed a parliamentary motion...
More than 150 British MPs backed a parliamentary motion to secure justice for Kenny Richey, who had spent the last 17 years on death row in Ohio
- APRIL 8, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
The United Kingdom abolished the death penalty for murder on December 18, 1969
The United Kingdom abolished the death penalty for murder on December 18, 1969
- APRIL 6, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Jack McConnell was urged to help prevent the execution...
Jack McConnell was urged to help prevent the execution of Kenny Richey, a Scot who had spent almost 18 years on death row in the US state of Ohio
- APRIL 6, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Jack McConnell was urged to help prevent the execution...
Jack McConnell was urged to help prevent the execution of Kenny Richey, a Scot who had spent almost 18 years on death row in the US state of Ohio
- MARCH 24, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
British teenager Alan Connell narrowly escaped the...
British teenager Alan Connell narrowly escaped the death penalty in Thailand when a court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment for trafficking thousands of ecstasy pills
- MARCH 23, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
The family and supporters of Linda Carty, a British...
The family and supporters of Linda Carty, a British woman on death row in Texas for murder, called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene
- MARCH 22, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that hundreds of death row prisoners...
It was reported that hundreds of death row prisoners in Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica could win a reprieve if an unprecedented privy council hearing beginning in London ruled that the mandatory death penalty for murder was unconstitutional
- MARCH 22, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
The campaign had been spearheaded by the London law...
The campaign had been spearheaded by the London law firm Simons Muirhead and Burton, which represented three of the four men appeal including, Charles Matthews, from Trinidad, and Lennox Boyce and Jeffrey Joseph, from Barbados
- FEBRUARY 16, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Britain told Zimbabwe it had promise not to execute...
Britain told Zimbabwe it had promise not to execute opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai if it wanted London's assistance in his treason trial
- FEBRUARY 11, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
British Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped dramatically...
British Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped dramatically into the Kenny Richey case - promising "to make inquiries myself" about the Scot on Death Row in Ohio
- FEBRUARY 9, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Asylum seekers in Northern Ireland were being sent...
Asylum seekers in Northern Ireland were being sent home to imminent death due to Government failures, an Amnesty International report entitled 'Get it right: How Home Office Decision Making Fails Refugees' claimed
- FEBRUARY 8, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie Blair,...
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie Blair, renewed her attack on America's use of the death penalty
- JANUARY 26, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Scottish death row inmate Kenny Richey spoke of his...
Scottish death row inmate Kenny Richey spoke of his frustration as he waited the legal decision on his fate
- JANUARY 26, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Scottish death row inmate Kenny Richey spoke of his...
Scottish death row inmate Kenny Richey spoke of his frustration as he waited the legal decision on his fate
- JANUARY 4, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
British Home Secretary David Blunkett said that a life...
British Home Secretary David Blunkett said that a life sentence must mean exactly that for the worst murderers as there was no capital punishment in the country
- DECEMBER 29, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Outspoken UK MP Desmond Swayne is leading the call...
Outspoken UK MP Desmond Swayne is leading the call for the restoration of the death penalty following the cold-blooded killing of a traffic police officer
- DECEMBER 21, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Cherie Blair entered the debate over the fate of Saddam...
Cherie Blair entered the debate over the fate of Saddam Hussein by calling for the abolition of the death penalty around the world
- DECEMBER 18, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
A poll in the UK revealed that 59 percent of those...
A poll in the UK revealed that 59 percent of those questioned supported Saddam being tried by a court in Iraq, while 29 percent said the United Nations should deal with him
- DECEMBER 16, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Labour MP Malcolm Savidge said the history of modern...
Labour MP Malcolm Savidge said the history of modern Iraq was dripping with blood and barbarism
- DECEMBER 15, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Washington's closest Iraq war ally Britain said it...
Washington's closest Iraq war ally Britain said it would play no part in any trial of Saddam Hussein that might lead to his execution
- DECEMBER 15, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Britain is prepared to see Saddam Hussein hanged for...
Britain is prepared to see Saddam Hussein hanged for "serious war crimes" despite its opposition to the death penalty, Prime Minister Tony Blair declared
- DECEMBER 15, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
UK Secretary David Blunkett insisted Saddam Hussein...
UK Secretary David Blunkett insisted Saddam Hussein must not be executed - because the death penalty would make him a martyr
- DECEMBER 14, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Britain's Foreign Office said it would make clear to...
Britain's Foreign Office said it would make clear to Iraqis that London was against the use of the death penalty in any trial involving captured president Saddam Hussein
- DECEMBER 8, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Britain's Court of Appeal upheld the conviction of...
Britain's Court of Appeal upheld the conviction of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain when she was sent to the gallows in 1955 for murdering her estranged lover
- NOVEMBER 27, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
An assurance that Michael McCrea, a 45 year old British...
An assurance that Michael McCrea, a 45 year old British national wanted in Singapore over a double murder, would not face the death penalty if he was extradited from Australia was not legally enforceable, the Australian Federal Court was told
- NOVEMBER 20, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Hundreds of prisoners on death row in the Caribbean...
Hundreds of prisoners on death row in the Caribbean were given new hope as the Privy Council in Britain declared the mandatory death penalty in Trinidad and Tobago unconstitutional
- NOVEMBER 19, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
More than 98 per cent of Daily Express readers who...
More than 98 per cent of Daily Express readers who took part in a phone poll suppored the reintroduction of capital punishment for "cold-blooded killings"