Capital Punishment: The Barbaric Anachronism

Capital Punishment: The Barbaric AnachronismThe Lord Chief Justice wondered if the death penalty might not be a trifle severe in view of the prisoner's age. The trial judge argued against mercy on the grounds that William York's punishment would be an example deterring others from a life of crime. So William York was hanged for stealing a shilling from the man to whom he was apprenticed. He was ten years old. The place was London. The time was 1748.Britain has come a long way along the road to c...