Capitalising on Punishment

Drawing on a wealth of primary source material, the majority of which has never been published before, this text presents a study of women reprieved of murder during the 20th century. The research provides a stark illumination of the overwhelming power differences between the condemned and those working within the criminal justice system when it came to constructing the dominant truth about events surrounding these women and the crimes for which they were found guilty. While the abolition of the death penalty means this issue is no longer one of life and death in the UK, modern cases such as those of Sally Clark and Angela Cannings, whose guilty verdicts were eventually overturned by expert testimony, demonstrate the devastating impact that those with the power to define the 'truth' still have on the lives of individuals who are unable to construct a dominant truth of their own during their trials.