« It's a Mystery » : the Royal Prerogative of Mercy in England, Canada and South Africa
This essay asks the question : on what grounds were murderers reprieved in England, Canada and South Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ? It weighs up three interpretations. Radzinowicz and Hood argue that mercy decisions were made on the basis of the law. Murders committed with the tw...
Gorde:
| Argitaratua izan da: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/chs, |
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| Egile nagusia: | |
| Formatua: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Hizkuntza: | Anglais |
| Argitaratua: |
Crime, Histoire & Sociétés
2009
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| Sarrera elektronikoa: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Gaia: | This essay asks the question : on what grounds were murderers reprieved in England, Canada and South Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ? It weighs up three interpretations. Radzinowicz and Hood argue that mercy decisions were made on the basis of the law. Murders committed with the two elements of deliberation and planning were punished by death. Roger Chadwick argues that execution depended on the social and moral meaning of a murder and not the legal definition of an intent to kill. And, third, Carolyn Strange argues that mercy in Canada was awarded arbitrarily. Hanging was a form of lottery. A detailed examination of judicial and administrative mercy reports in South Africa reveals that decisions were made on the basis of a legal definition of intent, but that the finding of intent was always determined by the social and moral meaning of a murder. To illustrate this point three similar domestic and intra-racial South African murders are examined in detail. |
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