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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kay CrosbyORCiD
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Oxford University Press, 2019.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
This article explores the last fifty years of the jury of matrons, a special type of jury used in England and Wales until the middle of the twentieth century to secure reprieves for pregnant women sentenced to death. Despite claims that the jury of matrons had fallen out of use by the middle of the Victorian era, such juries were used in over ten per cent of cases in which women were sentenced to death during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Exploring the circumstances in which the jury of matrons was abolished in 1931 can help us see how various important parts of the contemporary criminal justice system of England and Wales developed. In particular, it allows us to see in greater detail how ideas of the jury and of capital punishment were changing at this time, and how important political networks were in securing legislative reforms.
Author(s): Crosby K
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Oxford Journal of Legal Studies
Year: 2019
Volume: 39
Issue: 2
Pages: 259-284
Print publication date: 01/06/2019
Online publication date: 12/12/2018
Acceptance date: 03/10/2018
Date deposited: 03/10/2018
ISSN (print): 0143-6503
ISSN (electronic): 1464-3820
Publisher: Oxford University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqy037
DOI: 10.1093/ojls/gqy037
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