The law on its trial or, personal recollections of the death penalty and its opponents / by Alfred H. Dymond.

  • Dymond, Alfred H. (Alfred Hutchinson), 1827-1903.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The law on its trial or, personal recollections of the death penalty and its opponents / by Alfred H. Dymond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    very revolting features, was perpetrated by one Jobling, in Durham. Both were executed, and under the new law the bodies hung in chains. At Leicester, however, the nuisance created occasioned an immediate reversal of the order; and the body was taken down and buried, but not before the greatest scandal was occasioned by the unseemly proceedings of the crowds who flocked to the horrid exhibition as to a holiday spectacle. A sort of fair was held, and card- playing, with other levities, took place under the gibbet, greatly to the disturbance of the public peace, and the annoyance of all decent people. At Jarrow Stake, where Jobling's corpse was exposed, similar scenes prevailed, mingled, however, with compassion for the wretched culprit's family, for whom a subscrip- tion was raised from visitors on the spot. At length the body disappeared, some of the old companions of the malefactor defying the law by removing it at night and burying it in the sand. This settled the matter for ever, and the experiment was not again repeated. Two years later, as before mentioned, Mr. Ewart's bill repealed the law, leaving instead the simple clause which ordains that the bodies of executed murderers should be buried in the prison where they are confined previous to execution. If I