Punishing the Criminal Corpse, 1700-1840: Aggravated Forms of the Death Penalty in England

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

This book analyses the different types of post-execution punishments and other aggravated execution practices, the reasons why they were advocated, and the decision, enshrined in the Murder Act of 1752, to make two post-execution punishments, dissection and gibbeting, an integral part of sentences for murder. It traces the origins of the Act, and then explores the ways in which Act was actually put into practice. After identifying the domi...