Stories of other convict children

While Alice’s story is uniquely harrowing, she was not an isolated case in the long, dark history of juvenile capital punishment. For centuries, the legal systems of the world and particularly the English Common Law, operated under the principle that children as young as seven or eight could be held criminally responsible .During the era Alice lived in, and for centuries following, the law did not provide the protections for minors that we recognise today. Under the Bloody Code, the list of crimes punishable by death grew to over 200 offences in England. In the eyes of the law, a child’s age was often secondary to the severity of the crime or the need for a public deterrent. Here are a few examples of child victims of world history that we wanted to include, however we want you to remember that there are many more that do not deserve to be forgotten.

John Dean

John Dean remains the youngest person ever recorded as legally executed in England. In 1629, during the reign of King Charles I, the eight or nine year old was accused of arson after allegedly setting fire to two barns in Windsor.

His trial was remarkably swift. he was indicted and convicted in a single day at the Abingdon Assizes. Despite his extreme youth, the presiding judge, Mr. Justice Whitlock, refused to grant a reprieve, stating that the boy’s actions displayed "malice, revenge, craft, and cunning".

Under the laws of the time, a child as young as seven could be held criminally responsible if they were deemed to understand the nature of their crime. John Dean was hanged on 23 February 1629.

Hannah Ocuish

Hannah Ocuish was a 12-year-old Native American girl who, in 1786, became the youngest person ever executed in United States history with a verifiable age. An orphan believed to have an intellectual disability, Hannah was accused of murdering six year old Eunice Bolles in New London, Connecticut.

The prosecution claimed the motive was revenge for a dispute over stolen strawberries five weeks earlier. Hannah allegedly confessed after being confronted with the victim's body, though modern historians and the Innocence Project have questioned the fairness of her trial and the validity of a confession obtained under such pressure. Judge Richard Law sentenced her to death, arguing that sparing her would be of "dangerous consequence to the public". She was publicly hanged on 20th December 1786.