section required the death penalty for anyone convicted of two murders. There were two subsections: Two murders committed on separate occasions, provided both murders were committed in Great Britain; s.6(1) The murder of two or more people being charged in the same indictment; s.6(2) Section 7 – Abolition of the death penalty for other murders All other murders were to be punished with mandatory life imprisonment. Capital murder convictions There were 75 convictions for capital murder under the Act, 66 in England and Wales and nine in Scotland. Five were of people under the age of 18; six of the convictions were reduced either to non-capital murder or manslaughter on appeal, leaving 63 men and one woman who were liable to be hanged. Of these 64, 32 (including the only woman) were recommended to mercy and were reprieved from the gallows. 32 men – 29 in England and Wales and three in Scotland – were hanged. While the death penalty was originally still available under the subsequent Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which replaced the Homicide Act 1957, the last executions in the United Kingdom were carried out on 13 August 1964, when Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans were hanged for murdering John Alan West during a theft four months earlier, a death penalty crime under the 1957 Act. England and Wales Scotland Abolition of the death penalty The death penalty for murder was suspended for five years in 1965, and permanently abolished in 1969 (although it still remained for treason until 1998). The penalty today is life imprisonment under the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965. See also Murder in English law Suicide R v Betts and Ridley Ughill Hall shootings, where the act was used unsuccessfully as a defense References External links The Homicide Act 1957, as amended, from the Office of Public Sector Information. English criminal law United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1957 Criminal law of the United Kingdom Murder in the United Kingdom Death penalty law