IN August 1963, a 21-year-old man called Henry John Burnett was hanged in Craiginches Prison in Aberdeen for the murder of his girlfriend's husband.
Two years later, capital punishment was finally abolished, making Burnett the last man to be executed in Scotland.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the abolition, BBC Radio 4 is to broadcast archive material tonight that recalls the debates and events leading up to the end of the death penalty. The programme includes interviews with some of those who were involved in the Burnett case.
The programme also reveals that, even though capital punishment was abolished 50 years ago - on November 9, 1965 - support for it in the UK remains remarkably high.
The programme, The End of The Rope, has been made by the broadcaster John Forsyth, who interviewed some of the eyewitnesses to the Burnett case, including Bob Middleton, an Aberdeen councillor who watched the hanging, child psychiatrist Dr Ian Lowit, and Robert Henderson, the junior prosecuting counsel in the case.
Mr Forsyth says all the witnesses were horrified by what they saw. "They all hated it," he said. "If you had anything to do with it, you never forgot it.
"The child psychiatrist was traumatised by it. He said Burnett had a personality disorder that meant he was aware of what he was doing but did not have the responsibility.
"It was also shortly before legal aid was available in criminal cases, so he was defended by somebody who had virtually no experience of criminal defence at all."
Burnett's was the first execution since 19-year-old Anthony Miller, who was hanged in Glasgow in December 1960 for the murder of John Cremin in Queen's Park.
The Burnett case was particularly sad: he had spent much of his childhood in borstals and had tried to kill himself when he was a teenager. He began a relationship with a married woman, Margaret Guyan, but when it looked like she was on the point of leaving him, he shot her husband Thomas.
After being sentenced to death, there was an appeal which failed; the family also sent a telegram to the Queen asking her to intervene which went unanswered. Burnett was eventually executed on August 15, 1963.
Speaking on the programme, the man who executed him, Harry Allen - one of ten professional executioners in the UK who was was paid £15 per execution - said he had no regrets about Burnett or any of the other people he had executed.
"They've all done wrong," he said. "They've murdered somebody, they've taken an innocent life and I think it's the right thing to do."
However, even though Burnett was executed, there was a feeling among law-makers and lawyers that the days of capital punishment were numbered and two years after Burnett's death, a temporary ban was introduced in the Commons. Four years later, it was confirmed by a vote of the Commons and the Lords.
What struck Forsyth in making the programme was that, despite the change in the law, public support for capital punishment was strong and remains relatively high, which is confirmed by the most recent attitude surveys.
The Scottish Attitudes Survey of 2014 showed that 51 per cent agreed with the statement "for some crimes, the death penalty if the most appropriate punishment" and that figure has been pretty consistent for the last 15 years.
Rachel Ormston, co-head of social attitudes at the social research institute ScotCen, pointed out that there has been a decline in support since the 1980s, when there was about 75 per cent support for the death penalty.
"But it has declined over a huge amount of time when you think about when it was abolished," she said. "The whole area of the death penalty is a classic area where public opinion and what parliament repeatedly decides are in conflict."
As for any chance of capital punishment ever being reintroduced, Forsyth believes it is close to zero, although that could change if the UK votes to leave the EU. As members, the UK is banned from reintroducing the death penalty but leaving the EU would give the UK the freedom again. That may not happen, said Forsyth, but it is on the radar.
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