conditions were harsh for children of earlier centuries.Iran executes children still. Gallows (once called a pair of gallows) are a structure consisting of a horizontal crosspiece and one or two supporting uprights, used for hanging criminals. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/06/20/iran16211.htm. http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/hanging1.html#Tyburn.. HANGING A CHILD .......................BURNING AT THE STAKE above Illustrations.) http://www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/bonifield/hanging.html Hanging 18th century Britain. Children and juvenileshttp://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/hanging1.html#child. Possibly the youngest children ever executed in Britain were Michael Hammond and his sister, Ann, whose ages were given as 7 and 11 respectively in a book published in 1907. Previously, no claims as to their precise ages had been made, although they were referred to as being “under age,” without specifying what this term actually meant, and as “the Boy and the Girl” as they were both small. They were reportedly hanged at (Kings) Lynn on Wednesday, the 28th of September 1708 for theft. The local press did not, however, consider the executions of two children newsworthy! A painting of the two being taken in the cart to the gallows appears in Paul Richard’s book ”King’s Lynn”. It was reported that there was violent thunder and lightning after the execution and that their hangman, Anthony Smyth, died within a fortnight of it.http://www.barnet4u.co.uk/Barnet%20History/oldbailey.html In the 18th and 19th centuries, young people were subjected to the death penalty, particularly for murder, arson, highway robbery and property crimes. Court records often did not give the age of defendants sentenced to death and in some cases, executions of adults and minors did not appear in the newspapers of the day so it is not easy to trace the executions of children in the 18th century. Here are some reliable example http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/child.html
Eighteenth century. William Jennings, aged 12, was hanged at Tyburn on Monday, the 12th of March 1716, having been convicted of housebreaking at the February Sessions. Sixteen year old Thomas Smith was hanged at Tyburn on Wednesday, the 25th of April 1716, also for housebreaking. Edward Elton was hanged there the following year for the same offence. Four juveniles were hanged at Tyburn on Monday, the 20th of May 1717. They were 18 year old Martha Pillow who had been convicted of stealing in a shop, 17 year old Thomas Price and 18 year old Joseph Cornbach for housebreaking and 17 year old Christopher Ward for burglary. 15 year old James Booty (age also given as 12) suffered at Tyburn on Monday, the 21st of May 1722 for the rape of a 5 year old girl. 15 year old Elizabeth Morton was hanged at Nottingham on the 8th of April 1763 for the murder of two of her employer’s children. 18 year old Sarah Shenston suffered at Shrewsbury on Thursday, the 22nd of March 1792 for the murder of her bastard child. At Dorchester Assizes in March 1794, 15 year old Elizabeth Marsh was convicted of the murder of her grandfather. She was hanged in public two days later, on Monday, the 17th of March. Nineteenth century - public hangings. Children, like adults, continued to be sentenced to death for a very large number of felonies up to 1834 although it was normal for younger children to have their sentences commuted for the less serious crimes as there was public disquiet about hanging children and there is little actual evidence of anyone under 14 years old being hanged in the 19th century, despite what you might read in some books to the contrary. As stated earlier, executions were decreasing rapidly, both for adults and young offenders after 1834, as the number of capital crimes reduced and public attitudes changed. The following are confirmed cases of the execution of young people in the 19th century: 16 year old Ann Mead was hanged at Hertford on Thursday, the 31st of July 1800 for poisoning a 16 month old boy with arsenic. David Duffield was hanged at Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire on the 6th of April 1801 for murder and was afterwards hanged in chains at Taverspite. He was the last juvenile to suffer this fate in the 19th century. Mary Voce was hanged at Nottingham on Tuesday, the 16th of March 1802 for poisoning her child. In some reports she is said to have been born in 1788, which would make her only 14. On the 6th of May 1806, 15 year old Peter Atkinson suffered at York Castle for cutting and maiming Elizabeth Stockton. In 1817, the famous prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry, recorded her visit to Newgate prison where she went to comfort a young woman called Eliza (Elizabeth) Fricker (age given as 30 in her trial). Eliza had been condemned for burglary. Fry found "also six men waiting to be hanged and seven young children." One of the men had also been sentenced for burglary, two for robbery and three for forgery. Mrs. Fry was attacked for being a sentimentalist by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon, who stated that "if hanging was abolished for theft, the property of Englishmen would be left wholly without protection." Eliza was duly hanged outside Newgate on Wednesday, the 5th of March 1817, together with the 6 men. The other children were not executed and were presumably transported instead ...http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/burning.html Burning at the Stake.(above) On the 22nd of March 1819, 16 year old Hannah Bocking became the youngest girl to be executed in the 19th century when she was publicly hanged at Derby for the murder, by poisoning, of Jane Grant. 15 year old Edward Cassidy was hanged for robbery at Newgate in November of the same year. Three teenage boys were executed together for highway robbery outside Newgate in 1821, their ages being 16, 17 and 19. 17 year old William Thompson was hanged at Newgate for highway robbery on the 25th of September 1821 and 16 year old Benjamin Glover was hanged in Somerset on the 1st of May 1822 for stealing in a dwelling house. 16 year old Giles East was executed at Surrey’s Horsemonger Lane prison on the 20th of January 1823 for raping a little girl. Charles Melford, aged 17, suffered for housebreaking on the 12th of March 1828 at Newgate. James Cook, aged 16, was hanged at Chelmsford's Springfield Prison on the 27th of March 1829 for arson, having set fire to the premises of William Green, the farmer for whom he worked as a cow hand. (sorry about the aborigines in chains. i can't get rid of it.) A boy of just 9 was reputed to have been hanged at Chelmsford for arson in 1831, but it is probable that William Jennings was actually 19. 14 year old John Any Bird Bell who was hanged on the 1st of August 1831 at Maidstone in Kent for the murder of 13 year old Richard Taylor. John and his 11 year old brother, James, killed Richard Taylor for the sum of nine shillings (45p) which he was collecting from the Parish on behalf of his disabled father. They were tried on Friday, the 29th of July and because the second day after sentence would have been a Sunday, John was hanged on the Monday using the "New Drop" scaffold, erected outside Maidstone prison. Bell was probably the youngest person to be hanged in the 19th century. In 1833, a boy of 9 was sentenced to death at Maidstone Assizes for housebreaking but was reprieved after public agitation. (Click here for a history of
- Drag the condemned to a suitable spot. There should be a tree nearby.
- Hang the prisoner from the tree, but cut him down before he dies.
- Slit open the prisoner's stomach and draw out their entrails.
- Burn said entrails before the prisoner's eyes.
- Decapitate the condemned.
- Divide the body into four parts. Sometimes this was done with a sword, and sometimes it was done by tying the four remaining limbs to four horses and tearing the body apart.
Children in custody in the Philippines:http://web.amnesty.org/pages/phl-110403-action-eng