Capital punishment in Jersey

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Capital punishment in Jersey has been abolished. In the past, hangings were carried out on Westmount Hill in Saint Helier. The last hangings before the 20th century were Philippe Jolin in 1829 and François Bradley in 1866, the latter outside the prison. Public hangings were allowed until 1907, and Joseph Le Brun’s 1875 execution was the last public one in the British Isles.

From 1907, executions took place inside the prison after a change prompted by the Thomas Connan case. During the German occupation in World War II (1940–1945), executions were by firing squad. The last execution in Jersey occurred on 9 October 1959, when Francis Huchet was hanged for murder. The last death sentence was given in 1984 but was commuted to life imprisonment.

Capital punishment was abolished for murder by the Homicide (Jersey) Law 1986 and for genocide by the Genocide (Amendment) (Jersey) Law 1987. Although the death penalty could technically apply to military courts, these laws removed the Royal Court’s power to sentence death. References to capital punishment in obsolete laws were removed by the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No. 2) (Jersey) Law 2007. In 2006, the Human Rights (Amendment) (Jersey) Order aligned Jersey with Protocol No. 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights, providing for total abolition, and took effect on 10 December 2006. These changes updated the Human Rights (Jersey) Law 2000.