Capital Punishment and the Emotional Public Sphere in Twentieth-Century Britain

Capital Punishment and the Emotional Public Sphere in Twentieth-Century Britain

Lizzie Seal, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Sussex

The death penalty provokes strong emotions. As a highly symbolically rich punishment, it is a focus for the expression of emotions in relation to crime and punishment, as well as wider issues related to identity, order and the state of society. High profile capital crimes are cultural 'talking points' through which shared public emotion is demonstrated. As the public sphere expanded in mid twentieth-century Britain, the expression of emotion was reconfigured, with greater acceptability of the public expression of emotion (Langhamer, 2012). Capital punishment was one of the issues around which this reconfiguration took place. Certain capital cases were constitutive of the emotional public sphere - the emotional life of the nation.

In 1950s Britain, the hangings of Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis were intensely emotional public events. These cases reveal grounds for public expression of empathy with the condemned, particularly in relation to class and gender. Crucially, perceptions of injustice were also highly significant to public reactions. There were, however, other cases with potentially similar grounds for controversy but which received very little public attention. Through analysing archival sources such as newspapers, letters and case file material, this chapter will examine the conditions for, and limits of, the expression of emotions such as empathy in the public sphere. In particular, it will explore the relevance of 'race' and nationality to the emotional public sphere around the death penalty.

Reference: Langhamer, C (2012) "The Live Dynamic Whole of Feeling and Behaviour": Capital Punishment and the Politics of Emotion, 1945-57. Journal of British Studies, 51(2): 416-441.