{"product_id":"mercy-refused-eleanor-kenward-9798192308950","title":"Mercy Refused: Condemned Murderers Denied Reprieve in Eng-land and Wales, from Dr Crippen to Derek Bentley","description":"Fifteen men. Fifteen files. One sentence in reply.\u003cp\u003eBetween 1900 and 1964, every man sentenced to death in England and Wales had about three weeks to live and no idea whether he would. His case went to the Home Office in a buff folder - the judge's private report, the police file, the prison doctor, the petitions - and somewhere in Whitehall a minister decided. There was no hearing. The condemned man was not present, was not represented, and never learned what was in the papers that would kill him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the end, whichever way it went, no reason was given.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eMERCY REFUSED\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e follows fifteen of those files, from the wireless message that caught Dr Crippen in the Atlantic to the nineteen-year-old hanged at Wandsworth for a shot fired by somebody else.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe poisoner\u003c\/b\u003e who appealed to the judge as a fellow Freemason - and whose wife was acquitted on the same evidence\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe only English solicitor ever hanged\u003c\/b\u003e, convicted on a packet of weedkiller in his coat pocket\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe brides in the bath\u003c\/b\u003e: one charge, three deaths, and the ruling that still shapes English evidence\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eTimothy Evans\u003c\/b\u003e, hanged for a murder the man downstairs confessed to\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eDerek Bentley\u003c\/b\u003e, whose jury begged for his life and whose conviction took forty-five years to fall\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eJames Hanratty\u003c\/b\u003e, cleared by four decades of campaigning - and convicted again by DNA in 2002\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFour of these convictions have since been quashed or pardoned. One was confirmed by a science that did not exist when the man died. The rest will never be looked at, because nothing was written down that could show what went wrong.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawn from Home Office and Prison Commission records, Hansard, and the Court of Appeal judgments that finally reopened these cases, \u003ci\u003eMercy Refused\u003c\/i\u003e is a cold, documentary account of a power that decided who lived - in private, on paper, and without ever explaining itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBook Two of THREE CLEAR SUNDAYS, following\u003c\/i\u003e Condemned Women: Sentenced to Hang in England and Wales from the Edwardian Baby Farmers to Ruth Ellis.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Eleanor Kenward\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798192308950\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/12\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.67lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.47d","brand":"Eleanor Kenward","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":50666113990911,"sku":"9798192308950","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/mercy-refused-eleanor-kenward-9798192308950","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}