Historical views on the abolition of the death penalty can help to put the latest Sun campaign in context

The always contentious issue of the death penalty has re-emerged recently. Paul Staines (who writes the Guido Fawkes blog) has launched a campaign, which is backed by The Sun, to use the Government’s new e-petition scheme to initiate a Parliamentary debate on the reintroduction of capital punishment for the murderers of children and police officers. The campaign is supported by the Conservative MPs Philip Davies, Priti Patel and Andrew Turner. Lizzie Seal looks at how public opinion has changed towards capital punishment over the last fifty years to help put this in context.