The Cabinet Papers banner  Controversy and abolition  The
Homicide Act 1957  During the late 1940s and early 1950s, there
were several high profile murder cases, including those of
Bentley and Craig, Evans and Christie, and Ruth Ellis. The
imposition of the death penalty in these cases was extremely
controversial and caused the public to question capital
punishment. In 1956, a motion to retain the death sentence but
change the law on murder was defeated in the House of Lords, as
was a Death Penalty (Abolition) Bill introduced by Sydney
Silverman. The government then introduced a further bill, which
retained the death sentence but introduced degrees of murder
with different sentences. This was the basis of the Homicide Act
of 1957.  Abolition in 1965  After Wilson's victory in 1964 and
the report of the Longford Committee, the government revisited
the question of abolition, and a Murder (Abolition of the Death
Penalty) Bill was finally enacted in 1965.