Note 5 — CATHERINE HAYES. BURNT ALIVE FOR THE MURDER OF HER HUSBAND.
Reading edition
Until the thirtieth year of the reign of King George III. this punishment was inflicted on women convicted of murdering their husbands, which crime was denominated petit-treason. It has frequently, from some accident happening in strangling the malefactor, produced the horrid effects above related. In the reign of Mary (the cruel) this death was commonly practised upon the objects of her vengeance; and many bishops, rather than deny their religious opinions, were burnt even without previous strangulation. It was high time this part of the sentence the type of barbarism, should be dispensed with. The punishment now inflicted for this most unnatural and abhorred crime is hanging.