Murder can only be described as the most harmful and offensive of all crimes. It seemed for centuries both "just" and "fair" to punish murderers with the retributive sentence to death. However throughout the years the penalty of death has proven "unpopular" and "not necessary". Until the Homicide Act 1957 all persons convicted of murder were automatically sentenced to death. By s5 of that Act, certain types of murder were singled out and designated "capital murder". These continued to be punishable by death, whilst the remaining types of murder were punishable by imprisonment for life. …
