Suppose then that the court at the Old Bailey was, at the end of the trials, to be adjourned for four days; that against the adjournment day a gallows was erected in the area before the court; that the criminals were all brought down on that day to receive sentence; and that this was executed the very moment after it was pronounced, in the sight and presence of the judges.805 the strategies behind the reactions and the counterstrategies an early proponent of intramural executions. An early example of the practice is also from the British Isles. In Dublin chaotic scenes when large crowds pressed on resulted in the moving of the executions to the yard of the new Newgate prison where the first executions probably were held November5th 1785. Critique against the move, mainly stating that public executions were more deterring, led to the moving of the executions to the street outside the prison in December 1786.804 Fielding suggested a practical solution for how to arrange the London executions: Leaving Fielding and his solutions, let us turn to the changing strategies used for a couple of centuries aiming to stop crimes in order to be executed. Behind them one can see shifts in the way people chose to answer to the fundamental question of what the real nature of punishment is. Earlier answers of a penalty being right or suitable for the crime definitely was subdued by mainly deterrence, which was the focus of most strategies. Thus, the penalties hardly were limited to a specific crime or specific criminals but aimed further. In legislation and other actions, we find several strategies more or less consciously applied that were designed to stop these crimes and primarily the murders. That the strategies are largely found in legislation means that countries with few or no laws aimed at these kinds of crimes and criminals, such as France and the United Kingdom, are not represented to the same extent in these strategies. The strategies are more or less explicitly to be found in debate and legislation, or one of these, but as this is 804 Henry 1994 p 31 sq. Although the entire program of Fielding did not come to be carried out later changes such as the MurderAct of 1752 and the move of most London hangings from Tyburn to outside Newgate in 1783 can be understood as implementing some of the program in clearer symbols and swiftness also in abolishing the procession to Tyburn, see Devereaux 2009 e g p 140 sqq, 159 sqq. 805 Fielding 1882 p 268. 223
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