Aug 17, 2006
The British State to Pardon (a few of) Its Victims
The Guardian carries the news that the Defence Secretary will seek a pardon for the 306 men who were shot for cowardice or desertion during the First World War. Parliamentary approval is required. For more of the story, go here.
Coincidentally, I believe that during a debate on this topic in the House of Commons, the Reverend Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, whom Lord Carrington called"the bigot of all bigots", supported a pardon.
The pardons are also likely to affect former soldiers from other Commonwealth countries—such as Canada—and their families now living there.
To date New Zealand, France and Germany have pardoned soldiers who were shot in the same way. May we expect the United States to do so in the not too distant future?
Last year the UK government said it would scrap the death penalty for military offences in the armed forces. The forces have not carried out the death penalty for more than eighty years, but it still applies to five offences: misconduct in action, assisting the enemy, obstructing operations with intent to assist the enemy, mutiny, and failure to suppress mutiny with intent to assist the enemy. It was last used in 1920 when Private James Daly of the 1st Battalion of the Connaught Rangers was found guilty of mutiny at Jullunder in the Punjab.
Coincidentally, I believe that during a debate on this topic in the House of Commons, the Reverend Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, whom Lord Carrington called"the bigot of all bigots", supported a pardon.
The pardons are also likely to affect former soldiers from other Commonwealth countries—such as Canada—and their families now living there.
To date New Zealand, France and Germany have pardoned soldiers who were shot in the same way. May we expect the United States to do so in the not too distant future?
Last year the UK government said it would scrap the death penalty for military offences in the armed forces. The forces have not carried out the death penalty for more than eighty years, but it still applies to five offences: misconduct in action, assisting the enemy, obstructing operations with intent to assist the enemy, mutiny, and failure to suppress mutiny with intent to assist the enemy. It was last used in 1920 when Private James Daly of the 1st Battalion of the Connaught Rangers was found guilty of mutiny at Jullunder in the Punjab.