Punishing the criminal corpse, 1700-1840: aggravated forms of the death penalty in England

This text analyses the different types of post-execution punishments and other aggravated execution practices, the reasons why they were advocated, and the decision, enshrined in the Murder Act of 1752, to make two post-execution punishments, dissection and gibbeting, an integral part of sentences for murder.

It traces the origins of the Act, and then explores the ways in which the Act was actually put into practice.