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Derek Bentley
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Derek Bentley
Derek William Bentley (30 June 1933 – 28 January 1953) was a British man who was hanged for being the accomplice of a murder of a policeman during an attempted burglary. His accomplice, Christopher Craig, then aged 16, was convicted of the murder. Bentley was convicted as a party to the crime under the English law principle of joint enterprise, as the burglary had been committed in mutual understanding and the bringing of deadly weapons. The outcome of the trial, and Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe's refusal to grant clemency to Bentley, were highly controversial.
The jury at the trial found Bentley guilty based in large part on the prosecution's interpretation of the ambiguous phrase "Let him have it", Bentley's alleged exhortation to Craig, which prosecutors argued was an order to shoot and defence counsel argued was an order to surrender; this after Lord Chief Justice Goddard had described Bentley as "mentally aiding" the murder. Bentley was sentenced to death. He was executed despite a recommendation for mercy by the jury.
The Bentley case became a cause célèbre and led to a 40-year-long campaign to win Bentley a posthumous pardon, which was granted in 1993, and then a further campaign for the quashing of his murder conviction, which occurred in 1998. Bentley's case is thus considered a case of miscarriage of justice alongside that of Timothy Evans, and pivotal in the successful campaign to abolish capital punishment in the United Kingdom.
Bentley was born to William and Lilian Bentley, who raised their family in Blackfriars, London. He had one brother and two sisters. At his birth, it was discovered that he was the first of twins; the other infant was stillborn. Another sister, along with his aunt and grandmother, died in The Blitz. In infancy, Derek survived pneumonia. At age 4, he fell onto concrete from the back of a parked truck and appeared to have an epileptic seizure. He suffered from severe headaches and petit mal seizures, which caused him to lose track of time. His parents reported that he had three additional grand mal seizures, including one in which they said he nearly died of choking.
In 1944, Bentley entered Norbury Manor Secondary Modern School, after failing the eleven-plus examination. In 1948, at age 15, he was found to have an IQ score of 66, indicating a mental age of 10 years and 4 months. His reading age was 4.5 years; that is, he was illiterate.
In March 1948, he and another boy were arrested for theft. Bentley was sentenced to serve three years at Kingswood Approved School near Bristol. Christopher Craig also attended the school.
At the Child Guidance Clinic near Kingswood, Bentley's IQ score was found to be 77. Kingswood staff reported that he was "lazy, indifferent, voluble and of the 'wise guy' type"; a court described him as "indifferent, smug, self-satisfied and ready to tell tales". He was examined twice by EEG: a reading on 16 November 1949 indicated he was an epileptic and a reading on 9 February 1950 was "abnormal". After his arrest in November 1952, further IQ tests were administered at Brixton Prison. He was described as "borderline feeble-minded", with a verbal score of 71, a performance IQ of 87 and a full scale IQ of 77. Bentley was discovered to still be "quite illiterate". The prison medical officer said he "cannot even recognise or write down all the letters of the alphabet".
Bentley was released from Kingswood on 28 July 1950, a year early, though he was told that he would remain under the care of Kingswood until 29 September 1954. He was a recluse for the rest of 1950, rarely venturing out of the house until January 1951.
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Derek Bentley
Derek William Bentley (30 June 1933 – 28 January 1953) was a British man who was hanged for being the accomplice of a murder of a policeman during an attempted burglary. His accomplice, Christopher Craig, then aged 16, was convicted of the murder. Bentley was convicted as a party to the crime under the English law principle of joint enterprise, as the burglary had been committed in mutual understanding and the bringing of deadly weapons. The outcome of the trial, and Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe's refusal to grant clemency to Bentley, were highly controversial.
The jury at the trial found Bentley guilty based in large part on the prosecution's interpretation of the ambiguous phrase "Let him have it", Bentley's alleged exhortation to Craig, which prosecutors argued was an order to shoot and defence counsel argued was an order to surrender; this after Lord Chief Justice Goddard had described Bentley as "mentally aiding" the murder. Bentley was sentenced to death. He was executed despite a recommendation for mercy by the jury.
The Bentley case became a cause célèbre and led to a 40-year-long campaign to win Bentley a posthumous pardon, which was granted in 1993, and then a further campaign for the quashing of his murder conviction, which occurred in 1998. Bentley's case is thus considered a case of miscarriage of justice alongside that of Timothy Evans, and pivotal in the successful campaign to abolish capital punishment in the United Kingdom.
Bentley was born to William and Lilian Bentley, who raised their family in Blackfriars, London. He had one brother and two sisters. At his birth, it was discovered that he was the first of twins; the other infant was stillborn. Another sister, along with his aunt and grandmother, died in The Blitz. In infancy, Derek survived pneumonia. At age 4, he fell onto concrete from the back of a parked truck and appeared to have an epileptic seizure. He suffered from severe headaches and petit mal seizures, which caused him to lose track of time. His parents reported that he had three additional grand mal seizures, including one in which they said he nearly died of choking.
In 1944, Bentley entered Norbury Manor Secondary Modern School, after failing the eleven-plus examination. In 1948, at age 15, he was found to have an IQ score of 66, indicating a mental age of 10 years and 4 months. His reading age was 4.5 years; that is, he was illiterate.
In March 1948, he and another boy were arrested for theft. Bentley was sentenced to serve three years at Kingswood Approved School near Bristol. Christopher Craig also attended the school.
At the Child Guidance Clinic near Kingswood, Bentley's IQ score was found to be 77. Kingswood staff reported that he was "lazy, indifferent, voluble and of the 'wise guy' type"; a court described him as "indifferent, smug, self-satisfied and ready to tell tales". He was examined twice by EEG: a reading on 16 November 1949 indicated he was an epileptic and a reading on 9 February 1950 was "abnormal". After his arrest in November 1952, further IQ tests were administered at Brixton Prison. He was described as "borderline feeble-minded", with a verbal score of 71, a performance IQ of 87 and a full scale IQ of 77. Bentley was discovered to still be "quite illiterate". The prison medical officer said he "cannot even recognise or write down all the letters of the alphabet".
Bentley was released from Kingswood on 28 July 1950, a year early, though he was told that he would remain under the care of Kingswood until 29 September 1954. He was a recluse for the rest of 1950, rarely venturing out of the house until January 1951.