# Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 1965 c. 71 · enacted 8 November 1965 · revised to 31 October 2009 An Act to abolish capital punishment in the case of persons convicted in Great Britain of murder or convicted of murder or a corresponding offence by court-martial and, in connection therewith, to make further provision for the punishment of persons so convicted. PDFs: Printed copy https://openlegislation.uk/murder-abolition-of-death-penalty-act-1965/pdf/ukpga_19650071_en.pdf ## Introductory text An Act to abolish capital punishment in the case of persons convicted in Great Britain of murder or convicted of murder or a corresponding offence by court-martial and, in connection therewith, to make further provision for the punishment of persons so convicted. [8th November 1965] ## 1 Abolition of death penalty for murder. (1) No person shall suffer death for murder, and a person convicted of murder shall . . . be sentenced to imprisonment for life. (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3) For the purpose of any proceedings on or subsequent to a person’s trial on a charge of capital murder, that charge and any plea or finding of guilty of capital murder shall be treated as being or having been a charge, or a plea or finding of guilty, of murder only; and if at the commencement of this Act a person is under sentence of death for murder, the sentence shall have effect as a sentence of imprisonment for life. (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ## 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ## 3 Short title, repeal, extent and commencement. (1) This Act may be cited as the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965. (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3) This Act ... shall not extend to Northern Ireland. (4) This Act shall come into force on the day following that on which it is passed. ## 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ## . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . --- Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1965/71 (the official version) Page: https://openlegislation.uk/murder-abolition-of-death-penalty-act-1965 Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.