Commentaries by Alexis Boddy

Imprisonment for Public Protection: ‘The Greatest Single Stain’ on the UK Justice System

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Imprisonment for Public Protection: ‘The Greatest Single Stain’ on the UK Justice System

December 14, 2023 02:03:07 pm

In a distressing and seemingly interminable saga within the UK justice system, individuals sentenced to a mere two years have found themselves ensnared in unyielding decades-long stints of confinement—a grim consequence of the since-abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) policy. In 2020, Lord Brown, a former justice of the UK Supreme Court wrote he had “no [...]

THIS DAY @ LAW

US Supreme Court ruled Indians not US citizens

On November 3, 1884, the US Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins that John Elk, an American Indian who had tried to vote in a federal election in Omaha, Nebraska, was not a US citizen entitled to the protection of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the US Constitution. Native Americans became eligible for citizenship in 1887 under the Dawes Act, but only in 1924, under the Indian Citizenship Act, were all Native Americans born in the US made citizens.

Last public execution at Tyburn Gallows in London

On November 3, 1783, the last public execution took place at Tyburn Gallows in London, when John Austin was hanged for highway robbery. From the hanging of William Fitz Osburn in 1196 until Austin's execution, Tyburn served as London's primary location for public executions.

Learn more about the trial of John Austin.