[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback]
	Statutes of Northern Ireland
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Statutes of Northern Ireland >> URL: http://www.bailii.org/nie/legis/num_act/cpaa285.txt

[New search] [Help]

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - LONG TITLE

An Act to provide for carrying out of Capital Punishment within
Prisons.{1}
[29th May 1868]
Preamble rep. by SLR 1893

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 1
Short title.

1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as "The Capital
Punishment Amendment Act, 1868."

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 2
Executions to be within prison.

2. Judgment of death to be executed on any prisoner... shall be
carried into effect within the walls of the prison in which the
offender is confined at the time of execution.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 3
Under-sheriff, &c. to be present.

3. The [under-sheriff] charged with the execution, and the gaoler,
chaplain, and surgeon of the prison, and such other officers of the
prison as the [under-sheriff] requires shall be present at the
execution.Any justice of the peace for the county, borough, or other
jurisdiction to which the prisoner belongs, and such relatives of
the prisoner or other persons as it seems to the [under-sheriff] or
the [board of visitors] of the prison proper to admit within the
prison for the purpose, may also be present at the execution.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 4
Certificate of death.

4. As soon as may be after judgment of death has been executed on
the offender, the surgeon of the prison shall examine the body of
the offender, and shall ascertain the fact of death, and shall sign
a certificate thereof, and deliver the same to the [under-sheriff].

The [under-sheriff], and the gaoler and chaplain of the prison, and
such justices and other persons present (if any) as the
[under-sheriff] requires or allows, shall also sign a declaration to
the effect that judgment of death has been executed on the
offender.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 5
Coroner's inquest on body.

5. The coroner of the jurisdiction to which the prison belongs
wherein judgment of death is executed on any offender shall within
twenty-four hours after the execution hold an inquest on the body
of the offender; and the jury at the inquest shall inquire into
and ascertain the identity of the body, and whether judgment of
death was duly executed on the offender; and the inquisition shall
be in duplicate, and one of the originals shall be delivered to
the [under-sheriff]....

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 6
Burial of body, within walls of prison, or, in certain cases,
elsewhere.

6. The body of every offender executed shall be buried within the
walls of the prison within which judgment of death is executed on
him: Provided, that if one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of
State is satisfied on the representation of the [board of visitors]
of a prison that there is not convenient space within the walls
thereof for the burial of offenders executed therein, he may, by
writing under his hand, appoint some other fit place for that
purpose, and the same shall be used accordingly.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 7
Power to Secretary of State to make rules.

7. One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State shall from
time to time make such rules and regulations to be observed on the
execution of judgment of death in every prison as he may from time
to time deem expedient for the purpose as well of guarding against
any abuse in such execution as also of giving greater solemnity to
the same, and of making known without the prison walls the fact
that such execution is taking place.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 8
Such rules to be laid before Parliament.

8. All such rules and regulations shall be laid upon the tables of
both houses of [the Parliament of the United Kingdom] within six
weeks after the making thereof, or, if Parliament be not then
sitting, within fourteen days after the next meeting thereof.

S.9 rep. by 1946 c.13 (NI) s.16(3) sch.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 10
Publication of certificate and inquisition.

10. Every certificate and declaration and the duplicate of the
inquisition required by this Act shall in each case be sent with
all convenient speed by the [under-sheriff] to one of Her Majesty's
Principal Secretaries of State; and printed copies of the same
several instruments shall as soon as possible be exhibited and shall
for twenty-four hours at least be kept exhibited on or near the
principal entrance of the prison within which judgment of death is
executed.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 11
Execution of duties and powers of under-sheriff, gaoler, &c. by
deputy gaoler, &c.

11. The duties and powers by this Act imposed on or vested in
[the under-sheriff may be performed by and shall be vested in his]
lawful deputy acting in his absence and with his authority, and any
other officer charged in any case with the execution of judgment of
death.

The duties and powers by this Act imposed on or vested in the
gaoler of the prison may be performed by and shall be vested in
the deputy gaoler (if any) acting in his absence and with his
authority, and (if there is no officer of the prison called the
gaoler) by the governor, keeper, or other chief officer of the
prison, and his deputy (if any) acting as aforesaid.

The duties and powers by this Act imposed on or vested in the
surgeon may be performed by and shall be vested in the chief
medical officer of the prison (if there is no officer of the
prison called the surgeon).

The duties by this Act imposed on the chaplain may, in the event
of the absence of the chaplain, be performed by the assistant
chaplain or other person acting in place of the chaplain.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 12
Forms in schedule to be used.

12. The forms given in the schedule to this Act, with such
variations or additions as circumstances require, shall be used for
the respective purposes in that schedule indicated, and according to
the directions therein contained.

S.14 rep. by 1953 c.18 (NI) s.48 sch.5

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 15
Saving.

15. The omission to comply with any provision of this Act shall
not make the execution of judgment of death illegal in any case
where such execution would otherwise have been legal.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT - SECT 16
Sentence to be carried out as heretofore.

16. Except in so far as is hereby otherwise provided, judgment of
death shall be carried into effect in the same manner as if this
Act had not passed.

I, A.B., the surgeon [or as the case may be] of the [describe
prison], hereby certify that I this day examined the body of C.D.,
on whom judgment of death was this day executed in the [describe
same prison]; and that on that examination I found that the said
C.D. was dead.

Dated this day of

A.B.Declaration of [under-sheriff] and othersBWe, the undersigned,
hereby declare that judgment of death was this day executed on C.D.
in the [describe prison] in our presence.

Dated this day of

(Signed)E.F., [under-sheriff] of

&c.&c.