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On this day in 1953 Craig Bentley was hanged for a crime he didn't commit and was largely framed by the police and a lot of evidence was not allowed at his trial showing that he had the mental age of 11 along with numerous problems.
Not Britains finest hour
The only good thing to come out of this was that the death penalty would shortly disappear from Britain. Whilst I don't always agree with it I think it does have a purpose but this case really shows how horribly wrong it can go!

Ah yes, we studied this in English back in high school. An interesting, yet unbelievable story. Hanged for shouting 4 simple words; "Let him have it".

Ah, just found that it was Derek Bentley that was hanged. Christopher Craig was the one who fired the gun.

http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.c ... ntley.html

Not a great example of justice, but when I was reading this the other week on the BBC On this Day I was amazed to read that from the time of the murder to the day of Bentley's hanging was very short (a couple of months from memory) compared to today long and drawn out legal procedures...

I wait with baited breath to see how long the six (apparently) sub human beings who raped and murdered (multiple stabbing) the girl in Reading (and raped and shot her friend, who miraculously survived) will get. They're all pleading not guilty. Scum...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/4631628.stm

There have been many injustices during Britain's long history & I wouldn't go so far to say that this is the worst, even in the last Century. It was significant as it involved the murder of an unarmed policeman. As Tweek points out, Christopher Craig who had the gun & shot the policeman was 16 & therefore below the minimum age for execution. His accomplice Derek Bentley was 19 & made an example of. He was presented in court as a callous monster who egged his younger friend on when the opposite was probably true. Craig actually served 10 years before being released.