There were 865 executions in Britain during the first...

There were 865 executions in Britain during the first 64 years of the 20th century. Of these executions, 830 were executed for murder, 25 for spying mainly during WWI, four for treason, including the infamous Lord Haw Haw, and six for rape; only 16 women were executed.
In 1955, Ruth Ellis, 28, became the last woman to be hanged for shooting dead her unfaithful lover as he emerged from a pub. Her conviction is currently under review by British courts after the Criminal Cases Review Commission deemed it unsafe in February 2002. It is expected to be reduced to manslaughter as lawyers and relatives claim she was provoked.
Her execution sparked off a wave of controversy which led to hangings being suspended in Britain for almost two years and an important legislative step being taken towards abolition: the Homicide Act 1957 that restricted capital punishment to six special kinds of murder regarded as being the 'worst' of all homicides.
The last executions in Britain were of two men on August 13, 1964. Peter Anthony Allen, aged 21, was hanged in Walton gaol, Liverpool, and Gwynne Owen Evans, aged 24, was hanged in Strangeways, Manchester. They were both convicted of the murder of John Alan West, while robbing him in his house on April 7, 1964.
The last British soldier to be executed for a military offence was a private in 1942 after he fought for the Nazis. During the First World War, 307 soldiers were shot for cowardice.Since hanging was abolished in 1965, British MPs have regularly debated the reintroduction of capital punishment. In the last vote on the death penalty in 1994, the House of Commons voted 403 to 159 against reintroduction. A similar move was defeated in 1990 by 185 votes, while the majority against in 1983 was 170.
In December 2001, Parliament approved the Anti-Terrorism, Security and Crime Bill. This emergency legislation followed the September 11 attacks on the US and allows the Home Secretary to detain indefinitely without trial foreign nationals suspected of terrorism who cannot be deported under the Human Rights Act because they may face the death penalty, torture or degrading treatment.