Hanging Off

M.P.s say no to the noose

Inside the walls of London's Wandsworth Prison a gallows is maintained in working order, the trap door oiled and hanging beam polished. Even though Britain ended capital punishment in 1965, the issue has never been settled in the public mind. I.R.A. killings in Northern Ireland and Britain, along with rising criminality, have helped lead 77% of Britons, according to the latest Gallup poll, to favor the return of the death penalty for terrorist murderers. Last week the nation reached the climax of an emotional argument over the subject that divided the government, mobilized the clergy, aroused the police and dominated the press. After 6 1/2 hours of debate, the House of Commons voted decisively (368 to 223) against a motion to restore capital punishment.

The vote was a bitter blow to proponents of the death penalty, who had counted on the Conservatives, with their new 144-seat majority in Parliament, to heed the sentiment for a crackdown on violent crime. The vote was "free," meaning that party discipline was not invoked to influence the decisions of individual members. While Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and eight Cabinet colleagues supported a motion calling for the hanging of terrorist killers, eight others voted against it.

Both the advocates and the opponents of capital punishment had statistics to buttress their arguments. Abolitionists noted that since 1965, the number of murders that would have been punishable by death had not increased significantly. Prison guards announced their support for the noose, while prison governors felt executions would only worsen conditions in the tense, overcrowded cell blocks.

The day before the vote, the Most Rev. Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, convoked an extraordinary session of the synod of the Church of England to denounce "this barbaric punishment" that forces the state to "take the role of God." The six Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland expressed their opposition to the death penalty. In an act of blatant provocation on the morning of the vote, the I.R.A. staged its most devastating attack of the year in Northern Ireland. Four members of the Ulster Defense Regiment were killed by a land mine that destroyed their Land Rover.

Although Thatcher favors hanging, she probably does not regret last week's outcome. A return to the noose would have saddled the government with the task of redefining and reforming the nation's penal law so as to define the various conditions under which capital punishment would be applied. It would also have given Britain the dubious distinction of being the only country in Western Europe, except Turkey, to execute criminals. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.