Quote:
Originally Posted by tizmeinnit
I personally do not understand this sentence from the time of the crime thing. If someone got caught for murder they committed in the early 50s the sentence would have been death but they can not do that. The law is an ass
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Because the Act of Parliament which abolished the death penalty for murder, specifically stated that anybody who had committed the crime of Capital Murder prior to 1965, should in future be treated as if they had committed Murder instead. Anybody on death row in 1965 was automatically taken off it, and anyone who committed a capital murder prior to 1965, but was caught and charged after 1965, could only be charged with murder.
English law is not retrospective unless Parliament specifically makes it so.