Convicted Murderers and the Victorian Press: Condemnation vs. Sympathy

Abstract

Almost half of those receiving the death sentence in late-Victorian and Edwardian England were reprieved. The process of deciding which murderers were to hang and which were to be spared became an increasingly public one, thanks to the growing intervention of the press. This intervention grew alongside the accelerated expansion in the numbers and circulations of newspapers in the second half of the nineteenth century. As the press became a larger part of national life, its more 'popular' and its more local segments carved out for themselves a new and ever more prominent role as major participants in public discourse over 'justice' vs. 'mercy' for condemned murderers. This involvement is a facet of Victorian and Edwardian newspapers that has previously been overlooked. "I always ask to see the local newspaper reports in capital cases." Sir William Harcourt, Home Secretary 18822