The Royal Commission on Capital Punishment was chaired by the Duke of Richmond. It worked from 1864 to 1866 and was in disagreement on abolition.
Contents
Appointment
The Government agreed to a Royal Commission on 3 May 1864
The Commission was appointed by Queen Victoria on 8 July 1864.
The task
". . . to inquire into the Provisions and Operation of the Laws now in force in the United Kingdom, under and by virtue of which the Punishment of Death may be inflicted upon persons convicted of certain crimes, and also into the manner in which Capital Sentences are carried into execution, and to report whether any, and if any what alteration is desirable in such Laws, or any of them, or in the manner in which such sentences are carried into execution."
Commissioners
Secretary to the Commission: James Henry Patteson
Report
The Report of the Commission was published in December 1865.
Evidence
The Commission took evidence on 15 days, between 29 November 1864 and 25 March 1865, dealing with three or four witnesses a day.
In their Report, they included a section summarising the response to the following questions:
The verbatim evidence occupies 471 pages of the Report; there then follows an Appendix of 195 pages and an index to the Appendix. The Appendix contains answers to questions sent by the Commission to foreign countries and to Her Majesty's judges &c.
Appendix
The Questions:
Sent by the Foreign office to France, Belgium, Holland, Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, Saxony, Hanover, Italy, Tuscany, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Nassau, Anhalt, Oldenberg, Brunswick, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio, Maine and Rhode Island, Columbia, Indiana, Venezuela, Wisconsin, Ecuador, the Australian colonies, Scotland, Ireland together with responses from various judges and legal persons and statistical tables, together with, lastly, draft legislation on infanticide, prepared by Mr. Justice Willes.
Recommendations
The Commission did not come to agreement on abolition. On most matters, it offered a range of options for legislation. The exception was unanimity of the need for a law to stop public executions and to regulate executions within prisons.
A declaration, drafted by Stephen Lushington, was included in the Report: "[We] . . . are not prepared to agree to the Resolution respecting private executions." Signed by Stephen Lushington, Wm Ewart, Charles Neate, J Moncreiff, John Bright. This is presumably because they strongly favoured abolition.
William Ewart, Stephen Lushington, John Bright and Charles Neate signed a declaration drafted by Ewart: "[we]. . . are of opinion that Capital Punishment might, safely, and with advantage to the community, be at once abolished."
O'Hagan made a longer declaration: "I am of opinion,—with much deference for the great authority of those who think otherwise,—that the weight of evidence and reason is in favour of the abolition of Capital Punishment.
"I should, therefore, sign the declaration prepared by Mr. Ewart, but that I doubt whether public opinion in this country is yet ripe for the acceptance of such a change; and if it should be accomplished, without the sufficient sanction of that opinion, I fear the reaction which might follow on the perpetration of some great crime. I think, also, that the substitution of a minor penalty would render essential serious modifications in the discipline and machinery of our prisons; and such modifications, whilst I believe them to be possible, may be difficult, and remain to be devised. On these grounds, having regard to the practical scope of Your Majesty's Commission, I cannot join in simply advising immediate abolition; but, so far qualifying my adhesion to the terms of the declaration, I am prepared to adopt the principle which it embodies."