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
- NOVEMBER 16, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
The newly-appointed Conservative Party shadow home...
The newly-appointed Conservative Party shadow home secretary has sparked controversy by suggesting United Kingdom should bring back the death penalty
- NOVEMBER 16, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
A survey of 1,012 people for the Sunday Telegraph revealed...
A survey of 1,012 people for the Sunday Telegraph revealed that 62 per cent of those questioned wanted the death penalty brought back for child murderers, while 54 per cent backed its re-introduction for all murderers
- OCTOBER 28, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
George Kelly, hanged in the UK for murder was the victim...
George Kelly, hanged in the UK for murder was the victim of a miscarriage of justice which must be "deeply regretted", the Court of Appeal said
- OCTOBER 23, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
A Nigerian court sentenced Ian Millar, a 54 year old...
A Nigerian court sentenced Ian Millar, a 54 year old British businessman, to death by hanging for murdering his 43-year-old partner Anne Marie Gale, on April 12, 2002, in their home in Lagos
- OCTOBER 10, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
The United Kingdom ratified Protocol 13 to the European...
The United Kingdom ratified Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms banning the death penalty in all circumstances
- OCTOBER 10, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International urged people around the world...
Amnesty International urged people around the world to pressure countries to abolish the death penalty
- AUGUST 8, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott welcomed the conviction...
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott welcomed the conviction of first Bali bombing suspect Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, and said that, despite its opposition to the death penalty, the British Government would not to try to stop the Indonesian authorities from car
- AUGUST 8, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Five Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian convicted of...
Five Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian convicted of carrying out a wave of bombings in Saudi Arabia in 2000 and early 2001 were freed by the Gulf state
- AUGUST 7, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
The families of British Bali bombing victims will ask...
The families of British Bali bombing victims will ask for Amrozi bin Nurhasyim's death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment amid fears execution will turn him into a martyr
- JULY 23, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Two Britons captured as part of the US "war on terror"...
Two Britons captured as part of the US "war on terror" and held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will not face the death penalty, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said
- JULY 23, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Two Britons captured as part of the US "war on terror"...
Two Britons captured as part of the US "war on terror" and held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will not face the death penalty, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said
- JULY 10, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Italy's EU presidency was urged to ensure that the...
Italy's EU presidency was urged to ensure that the rights of terrorist suspects facing secret US military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay were respected
- JULY 9, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said his government...
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said his government was pressing Washington behind the scenes to ensure the planned trials of terrorism suspects jailed at Guantanamo Bay would not violate international law
- JUNE 16, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Two members of the Peoples Mujahedeen who have lived...
Two members of the Peoples Mujahedeen who have lived in Britain as political refugees for decades were recently arrested in Syria and handed over to the clerical regime in Tehran, the Iranian opposition movement said
- JUNE 10, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
George Kelly, 27, who was executed for the murder of...
George Kelly, 27, who was executed for the murder of Leonard Thomas, the manager of a cinema in Liverpool, during a robbery in March 1949, had his conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal
- APRIL 27, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
The Observer Sunday newspaper printed the results of...
The Observer Sunday newspaper printed the results of a nationwide poll on criminality: "Do you believe that the death penalty should be re-introduced in Britain for certain crimes? Yes 67% No 33%
- APRIL 24, 2003United 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 approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva
- APRIL 19, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
The London-based Privy Council upheld an appeal by...
The London-based Privy Council upheld an appeal by Bimal Roy Paria, a 29-year-old man in Trinidad and Tobago, who had been sentenced to death for killing his common law wife, her mother and sister on 24 July 1998
- APRIL 10, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
British cabinet ministers warned that it would be illegal...
British cabinet ministers warned that it would be illegal for Tony Blair to bow to US demands for Iraqi prisoners of war captured by British forces to be handed over to the US for trial or imprisonment in the United States
- APRIL 5, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
British Home Secretary David Blunkett vowed that Britain...
British Home Secretary David Blunkett vowed that Britain would not send people to the US under a new extradition treaty if there was a possibility they could face the death penalty
- MARCH 25, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Chris Pond, MP for Gravesham, threw his support behind...
Chris Pond, MP for Gravesham, threw his support behind the Sikh community by writing to Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam urging him to take Davinder Pal Singh Bhuller off death row
- MARCH 5, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
A State of the Region survey conducted by the Journal...
A State of the Region survey conducted by the Journal showed that 65 per cent of people in the North-East believed that the only way of claiming justice for murdered children was by implementing the death penalty
- MARCH 5, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Newcastle Law School lecturer James Sweeney argued...
Newcastle Law School lecturer James Sweeney argued that capital punishment doesn't act as a deterrent in preventing crimes
- FEBRUARY 25, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
The parents of a young English teacher stabbed to death...
The parents of a young English teacher stabbed to death in Thailand made a plea for the woman accused of his murder not to face the death penalty
- FEBRUARY 23, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon MEP called for mercy to be...
Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon MEP called for mercy to be shown to a Nigerian woman facing death by stoning for adultery
- FEBRUARY 13, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
British MP and Minister for Europe Denis MacShane revealed...
British MP and Minister for Europe Denis MacShane revealed that two Iraqi doctors living in the UK fled their homeland after being ordered by Saddam Hussein to help commit atrocities against his own people
- FEBRUARY 10, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Bill Rammell, Foreign Office Minister with responsibility...
Bill Rammell, Foreign Office Minister with responsibility for human rights policy, met members of the Foreign Secretary's Death Penalty Panel to discuss how the UK can promote abolition of the death penalty in Africa
- FEBRUARY 10, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Baroness Sarah Ludford asked the President of Parliament...
Baroness Sarah Ludford asked the President of Parliament to write to the Governor of Texas and President Bush following the execution of Jackie Elliott
- FEBRUARY 5, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Lawyers and supporters of Jackie Elliott, a UK national...
Lawyers and supporters of Jackie Elliott, a UK national convicted of a murder in Texas in 1986, reacted furiously to his execution, saying the US legal system had refused even to look at compelling evidence pointing to his innocence or to allow more time
- FEBRUARY 4, 2003United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International UK campaigners held a vigil at...
Amnesty International UK campaigners held a vigil at London's Westminster Abbey for British born Jackie Elliott, due to be executed in Texas, USA, for a murder committed in 1986