Capital Punishment and the Criminal Corpse in Scotland, 1740–1834

Description

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book provides the most in-depth study of capital punishment in Scotland between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth century to date. Based upon an extensive gathering and analysis of previously untapped resources, it takes the reader on a journey from the courtrooms of Scotland to the theatre of the gallows. It introduces them to several of the malefactors who faced the hangman’s noose and explores the traditional hallmarks of the spectacle of the scaffold. It demonstrates that the period between 1740 and 1834 was one of discussion, debate and fundamental change in the use of the death sentence and how it was staged in practice. In addition, the study provides an innovative investigation of the post-mortem punishment of the criminal corpse. It offers the reader an insight into the scene at the foot of the gibbets from which criminal bodies were displayed and around the dissection tables of Scotland’s main universities where criminal bodies were used as cadavers for anatomical demonstration. In doing so it reveals an intermediate stage in the long-term disappearance of public bodily punishment. Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction (Rachel E. Bennett)....Pages 1-25 Front Matter ....Pages 27-27 Capital Punishment and the Scottish Criminal Justice System (Rachel E. Bennett)....Pages 29-57 Contextualising the Punishment of Death (Rachel E. Bennett)....Pages 59-92 Scottish Women and the Hangman’s Noose (Rachel E. Bennett)....Pages 93-119 Front Matter ....Pages 121-121 The Spectacle of the Scaffold (Rachel E. Bennett)....Pages 123-158 A Fate Worse than Death? Dissection and the Criminal Corpse (Rachel E. Bennett)....Pages 159-185 Hanging in Chains: The Criminal Corpse on Display (Rachel E. Bennett)....Pages 187-213 Conclusion (Rachel E. Bennett)....Pages 215-232 Back Matter ....Pages 233-237