york61 The CONDEMNED Cell Here those CONDEMNED TO DEATH would have spent their last days. The iron bed and the oven date from the 19th century. In the 18th century there were over 200 offences in English Law punishable by death. These included theft and forgery as well as violent crimes. Juries were often reluctant to pass a guilty verdict for certain crimes, or when the offender was young and it was a first offense. Judges routinely recommended mercy and asked the Home Secretary to commute the sentence to transportation (to the Colonies or Australia) Death was generally by hanging. Until 1790 a woman accused of treason, which included killing her husband or forgery, could be burned alive, although the executioner usually ensured that the woman was strangled before the flames were lit.