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Post by Admin_Vistamike on Aug 11, 2016 13:48:10 GMT
When children faced the DEATH penalty: Records reveal chilling sentences for petty crimes THE BRITISH criminal justice system may have a world-class reputation for fairness but this wasn’t always the case. Until 1823 the theft of goods worth more than 12 pence (about one-20th of the weekly wage for a skilled worker – about £13 in today’s money) had been punishable by death. Chillingly, those convicted of theft frequently received harsher sentences than those convicted of violent offences. One bizarre list of court cases in Essex dating from 1896 shows how Charles Norton was sentenced to nine months in Pentonville for stealing brandy while an errand boy named George Roker was jailed for only four months for manslaughter. The cases feature among 2.5 million new criminal records that cover 157 years of the criminal justice system in England and Wales. They have been made available for the first time online by findmypast.co.uk in association with the National Archives and are packed with details of some of the most notorious cases in history, including Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen – the American ear and eye specialist who was hanged in Pentonville for the murder of his wife Cora – and serial killer George Joseph Smith who killed three of his seven wives by drowning them before he was hanged in 1915. READ MORE>>>>>
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Post by Lighthouse on Aug 11, 2016 15:28:19 GMT
Steal a loaf of bread, and off to Ozzie land you go. You may, or may not do well out of the deal.
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