 Public revulsion at the case is thought to have played a part in the abolition of capital punishment in the UK in 1969.Stevenson was a leading member of the legal team assisting Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller during the failed prosecution of Dr John Bodkin Adams in 1957.The prosecution's conduct of the trial has been heavily criticised, and its decision to drop a second murder charge via a "nolle prosequi" was scathingly described by the trial judge, Patrick Devlin, as "an abuse of process", saying