Judgment of Death Act 1823

The Judgment of Death Act 1823 (4 Geo. 4 c. 48) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (although it did not apply to Scotland). Passed at a time when there were over 200 offences in English law which carried a mandatory sentence of death, it gave judges the discretion to pass a lesser sentence for the first time. It did not apply to treason or murder. The act required judges to enter a sentence of death on the court record, but then allowed them to commute the sentence to imprisonment.

Judgment of Death Act 1823^[a]

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act for enabling Courts to abstain from pronouncing Sentence of Death in certain Capital Felonies.
Citation	4 Geo. 4 c. 48
Territorial extent	England and Wales Ireland [b]
Dates
Royal assent	4 July 1823
Commencement	4 July 1823[c]
Repealed	1 January 1971 (England and Wales)[d]
Other legislation
Amended by	Statute Law Revision Act 1888
Repealed by	Courts Act 1971 (England and Wales) Statute Law Revision Act 1983 (Republic of Ireland)
Relates to	Gaols Act 1823
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

Provisions

Short title, commencement and extent

Section 1 of the act provided that the act would commence from and after the passing of the act.

Section 3 of the act provided that the act would not extend to Scotland.

Legacy

The act was repealed in England and Wales by section 56(4) of, and the schedule 11 to, the Courts Act 1971,^[1] in the Republic of Ireland by the Statute Law Revision Act 1983^[2] and repealed in 1980 in Northern Ireland.^{[citation needed]} By that time the death penalty in the United Kingdom had essentially ended: it had been abolished for murder in Great Britain in 1965, the last ones issued in Northern Ireland were soon commuted to life imprisonment, and no death penalties were subsequently handed down in Great Britain for the crimes that retained it.

See also

• Capital punishment in the United Kingdom

Notes

1. The citation of this act by this short title was authorised by section 1 of, and the first schedule to, the Short Titles Act 1896. Due to the repeal of those provisions it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
2. Section 3.
3. Section 1.
4. The Courts Act 1971 (Commencement) Order 1971.