Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 all sentences of death were to be commuted to sentences of life imprisonment. The legislation contained a sunset clause, which stated that the Act would expire on 31 July 1970 "unless Parliament by affirmative resolutions of both Houses otherwise determines". This was done in 1969 and the Act was made permanent. The Act left four capital offences: high treason, "piracy with violence" (piracy with intent to kill or cause grievous bodily harm), arson in royal dockyards and espionage, as well as other capital offences under military law. The death penalty was not finally abolished in the United Kingdom until 1998
Treason in the Republic of Ireland generally, but retained it for treason and several other crimes. The Criminal Justice Act 1990 abolished the death penalty completely and set the punishment for treason at life imprisonment, with parole in not less than forty years. The 1996 report of the Constitution Review Group considered the case for removing or altering the definition of treason in Article 39, and recommended no change. In 2010, in the context of the Irish financial crisis, the Green Party introduced a private member's bill to define the crime of "economic treason" in the Constitution. Treason in the Republic of Ireland The crime of