Harry Allen (executioner) keep away from the trapdoor!. Under the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, capital punishment in the UK for murder was suspended, before finally being abolished in 1969 (It was abolished in 1973 in Northern Ireland). Although the death penalty remained for other crimes such as treason and piracy with violence, no further executions took place in the UK, although a working gallows was kept in service and regularly tested at Wandsworth Prison until 1998. It was dismantled when the death penalty for treason and piracy was abolished by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Allen moved to Fleetwood
Death penalty for homosexuality took many of those laws as the basis of their own, in some cases verbatim. The last law where the death penalty was on the statute books was South Carolina, the old British law wasn't repealed until 1873, twelve years after the mother country. The number of times the penalty was carried out is unknown. Records support two executions, and a number of more uncertain convictions, such as "crimes against nature". Death penalty for homosexuality The death penalty for homosexuality has historically been implemented by a number of countries worldwide. It currently still exists in a fairly small number of