1806- Excluding treason, forgery, murder, and arson, If the crime committed was a first time offense that is normally a mandatory death sentence under british law, courts ignored the law and began to send these first time offenders outside of the country instead for anything from two years to life, regardless of the time the court appointed them to be away, a very small percentage of the those sent away ever returned. this was called transportation or commuting.
1810- Not all necessarily in practice, the U.K had reached a point where it had 222 capital offenses.
1823- The Judgement of Death act legally allowed courts to lessen the punishments for many of the crimes that were previously mandatory death sentences, making many of them prison time or transportation.
1834- Gibbetting and hanging with iron chains or heated iron chains was abolished.
1836- The Murder act was repealed, the murder act mostly stated thing that were obvious and already considered by the courts and the people, with exception of making it mandatory to execute the condemned at most two days after sentence. Onward from 1836 it was standard to execute the condemned anywhere from ten to 15 days after sentence. this added time became very important to be able to make the calculations and create the proper scaffolding when the long drop method is put into use. 1836 also brought the Prisoners counsel act which was the U.K equivalent of the right to a lawyer, except this act made it mandatory for the prisoner to have a lawyer in serious crimes.
1837- The Offenses Against Persons act in effect reduced the number of capital offenses to 16.
1853- The Penal Servitude act made prison time an official punishment as opposed to prison just officially simply being a place where criminals waited to be hanged.
1861- The only four capital offenses left at this time were murder, treason, arson, and forgery
1868- After a couple of years of discussion, public executions are abolished. the last punlic execution was of Michael Barrett. The first privately executed man was Thomas Wells, only 18 years old, for murder.
1872- The long drop method of hanging, invented by William Marewood, was introduced.
1874- The long drop method becomes universal.
United States of America CP timeline 19th century
1833- Rhode Island ends public execution.
1834- Pennsylvania ends public execution.
1835- Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey end public executions.
1838- Tennessee becomes the first state to allow an alternative punishment in an instance that would have been deemed in the past as a mandatory death sentence. This alternative was life in prison. Alabama does the same some months after, but still in 1838
1846- Excluding treason, Michigan abolishes capital punishment for all crimes.
1850s- The U.S changes its method of hanging from the short drop method to the standard drop method. which is to essentially say they started hanging people from about a foot, give or take a half, to four to five feet.
1853- Wisconsin abolishes capital punishment for all crimes including treason making it technically the first state to abolish capital punishment. Although Michigan abolished it first, they did not completely abolish it, by leaving treason punishable by death, Michigan did not really abolish the capital punishment.
1865- Illinois follows suit of Tennessee and Alabama.
1867- Illinois expands on the alternative of life in prison to execution, and gives the courts the ability to sentence durations less than life in prison, becoming the first state to do so.
1881- The idea of the electric chair is conceived and proposed by Dr. Alfred P. Southwick.
1886- The state of New York officially appoints a committee to invent a more humane form of execution, with the electric chair already in mind. Dr. Alfred P. Southwick was a part of this committee.
1888- The electric chair is invented and developed.
1891- The first execution via electric chair is performed in New York on William Kemmier.