Is there still corporal punishment for treason in the UK?

Question

Yes I do mean capital punishment!!! Sorry, although no one seems to know the definite answer. When i asked the guy who worked at the Tower of London, he said yes, you can still be shot for treason in this country in theory, although I am sure that this would be against your human rights now!! Who knows??

Answer 1

Yes, there is still capital punishment for treason in Britain! This surprises a lot of people. They just have never got round to changing the law book.

In practice though, this wouldn't happen.

When you look over some of the old laws some of them are really funny but they do still stand!

Answer 2

The Treason law still stands and it is the only law that could still carry the death penalty. Nowadays Activists would cause SO MUCH FUSS about it (Just look at America) that it wouldn't be used and because of European legislation other crimes have been reduced to Life Sentences or less.
If LIFE meant LIFE in jail I would agree but IT DOESN'T. They serve so many years and then are released!
Victims or their families do get a LIFE sentence!
Living with the memory of a person who was killed or being raped is THE sentence.
It is TIME to think of them not the selfish criminal who really didn't care who was hurt by their Actions!

Answer 3

I assume you mean capital? I.e. death by hanging or firing squad.

No. There is a common misconception that it still applies (even theoretically) for treason, piracy, arson in HM Dockyards etc but this is wrong.

The death penalty for murder was abolished in 1965, and replaced with a mandatory life sentence.

The death penalty was retained on the books for treason, however it was abolished in 1998.

In 1999 we signed the European Convention of Human Rights which effectively meant it would never return.

The last person executed of treason in the UK was William Joyce, known as Lord Haw Haw, who hanged at Wandsworth in January 1946.

Answer 4

LOL!

No there is no capital puinishment for anything in the UK anymore. The death penalty was outlawed in the UK in the 1960s.

If the law still stands then it will never be used - its one of those obsolete laws that has fallen out of use but not been remoived, like the one that says you can legally shoot a Welshman whos out on the streets of Chester after dark!!! I've been to Chester a few times and I'm a Welsh WOMAN not man but I always wondered if anyone was going to exercise their legal rights and take a pot shot at me ! LOL!

Answer 5

As everyone else has suggested treason is still a capital offence. I do believe that they still have the birch on the Isle of Mann, which is a form of corporal punishment similar to the cane.

Answer 6

It was last used successfully in the UK in 1981 against Marcus Simon Serjeant, a 17-year-old who fired a replica pistol at the Queen as she rode past during the Trooping of the Colour. Serjeant received a five-year-jail sentence, of which he served three years. The last man in Britain to be executed for treason was William Joyce, an Irish-American who moved to Germany in 1939 and, after becoming a naturalised German, broadcast pro-Nazi propaganda to Britain. His mistake was to have travelled to Germany on a British passport, even though it was fraudulently obtained. Joyce, better known as Lord Haw Haw, was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on January 3, 1946. Hope this helps ;)

Answer 7

You mean capital punishment.
Corporal punishment is punishment by physical abuse like getting the cane or lashes at sea.

Technically the death penalty for treason still exisit for use iin conflict but in practice it would never be used by the UK.

Answer 8

Our police force now operates a shoot to kill policy in the UK.Terrorism is one area where this can be used,so why not treason?? How many of you know this?....................
Under EU law the "Shoot to kill" policy did not need democratic authorisation. Just two senior police officers authorised the police to kill British people. A democratic vote by Parliament was not required, but even that would not have legalised the killing under British common law. A recent victim was an innocent Brazilian, Jean de Menezes, shot dead in Stockwell underground station, even though he was being held down by police officers at the time of the execution. The police used dum-dum bullets, outlawed under the Geneva Convention because they blow a man to pieces inside.
The police can no longer be convicted for killing innocent people - Philip Prout shot at Lewannick in East Cornwall is just one of 30 people shot dead by police since 1992 when corpus juris crept in. At least one was shot in the back; most were no threat to anyone. Not once since 1992 has a policeman been convicted of any crime for these murders.

Answer 9

No, no capital punishment in the UK for anything anymore, not even in times of war or conflict. This was finally ratified in 2003 even though no-one had suffered execution for many years before that. See link below.
Incidentally, if you are unfortunate enough to be strung up by the neck you are HANGED not HUNG. Pictures are hung, convicts are hanged

Answer 10

I presume you mean capital punishment. And no there isn't, it would be against their civil rights.
I often think that managing directors who close down UK firms and move them abroad are guilty of treason, but they usually end up with big pay rises and knighthoods rather than the noose.