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Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

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Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

When murderers were hanged quickly

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Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans, the last hanged in Britain
At 08:00 on Thursday 13 August 1964, two keys turned in the locks of two prison cell doors - one in Manchester, the other in Liverpool. Moments later, two men were dead, hanged for the crime of capital murder.

Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen, two petty criminals who killed a man in a bungled burglary, were the last two people to be executed for murder in the UK.

Justice came swiftly. The trial of 24-year-old Evans and Allen, who was 21, began on 23 June at Manchester Assizes. On 7 July the men were found guilty and sentenced under the 1957 Homicide Act to suffer death "in the manner prescribed by law".

Their appeal was heard just two weeks later - and dismissed the next day. A final appeal for clemency was rejected by the Home Secretary on 11 August. Less than five weeks elapsed between conviction and execution.

The speed of the process, even with two lives at stake, was not unusual. A delay covering three Sundays between sentencing and execution was all the law stipulated.

"The three Sundays rule dated back to the Victorian era," explains Steve Fielding, a criminologist and author of more than 20 books on executions.

"It was felt to allow enough time for any new evidence to come to light, the convict to make his peace with his or her God and also to not prolong the inevitable wait to die."

An appeal might hold things up for slightly longer - but not by much.


Source: BBC News, Marek Pruszewicz, August 7, 2014

Related article:
- 20 Minutes to Death: Record of the Last Execution in France, October 14, 2013 - The cell door was opened. I heard someone say that the prisoner was dozing, but not sleeping. He was made to 'get ready'. It took a long time, since he had an artificial leg and it had to be put on. We waited. No one spoke...
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