Under Britain's most notorious era of criminal law, you could be sentenced to death for everything from destroying a fishpond to being a particularly malicious 7-year-old. But how many criminals actually died thanks to this wave of harsh legislation? Getting the answer requires a deep dive into the very weird world of crime and punishment in the industrializing United Kingdom.

Content note: This episode is about capital punishment in British law and will include a lot of information about the state executing convicted criminals. The show notes contain images of hangings. I'm sticking with our general policy of choosing illustrations for our show notes instead of photographs of dead bodies.

Sources and show notes

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