It has been 50 years today since the abolition of the death penalty in Britain.
The House of Commons voted to make the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 permanent on December 16, 1969, ending the use of capital punishment across the country.
Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were the last people to have their death sentence carried out in August 1964, but the last execution in Derbyshire was carried out almost six decades prior.
The last person to be executed in Derbyshire was hanged on July 16, 1907 by the nation’s most senior executioner, Henry Pierrepoint, at Derby Gaol.
William Slack, a 47-year-old painter from Salter Gate in Chesterfield, was found guilty of murdering his former lover on March 18, 1907.
Lucy Wilson, a married bar maid, was hacked to death with a hatchet at the age of 40 following an intense exchange of words.
The two had been having an affair for an extended period of time before breaking it off shortly before the attack.
The attack took place in broad daylight as she pushed a pram containing her son, of whom Slack was alleged to be the father, along Highfield Road in Chesterfield.
A postman was said to have witnessed Slack striking Wilson and persuaded him to give himself up as he pushed the pram along the road.
He had previously served seven years of hard labour for the attempted murder of a police constable and had been left by his wife sometime prior due to his violent tendencies.
Prior to being charged, he spoke of his threat to Wilson before the assault.
He said: "I told her at dinner time today against the theatre that if she came up I should cut her head off and that I should have no more to do with her."
At his trial, Slack pleaded not guilty to murder, claiming that Wilson had provoked him into attacking her.
Nonetheless, the jury found him guilty.
A newspaper report at the time by The Scotsman said Slack used "filthy and violent language" and refused to face the bench when sentence was passed.
He was sentenced to death on June 25, 1907.
Slack’s execution was the last of many in Derbyshire, the final chapter in a long line of death sentences handed down for offences ranging from petty theft to high treason.