Death Recorded: Capital Punishment and the Press in Northampton, 1780–1834 Midland History Prize Proxime Accessit 2007

Abstract

This article focuses on execution reports in the Northampton Mercury and Northamptonshire execution broadsides from 1780–1834 to determine how capital punishment was represented in the media. Although there has been an increase in literature discussing the reporting of crime in the press, there has been no study of execution reports in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The use of a variety of media suggests reports in different mediums reflected their readership. Through a typical case study this article hopes to address how the criminal justice system was portrayed as its reform was imminent. In particular it will highlight how the formulaic style of reports gave messages about the reformative nature and efficacy of the execution process, and created an acceptable image of justice. Reports were not always indicative of the changes occurring society and criminal legislation, suggesting the importance of creating the image of an infallible criminal justice system.