Robert Smith (murderer)

{{Short description|Scottish murder and last person to be publicly executed in Scotland (d. 1868)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox criminal

|name = Robert Colvin Smith

|death_date = 12 May 1868

|death_place = Buccleuch Street Prison, Dumfries, Scotland

|death_cause = Execution by hanging

|conviction = Murder, Attempted murder

|conviction_penalty = Death by hanging

|conviction_status = Executed}}

Robert Colvin Smith (died 12 May 1868) was the last person to be publicly executed in Scotland.

On 1 February 1868, Smith, a 19-year-old labourer, encountered 9-year-old Thomasina Scott at the home of Jane Crichton in Cummertrees and offered to accompany her to Annan, where her mother had sent her to run an errand. Upon reaching Crofthead Wood, Smith took Scott's money, raped her and then strangled her to death.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dgwgo.com/entertainment/scotlands-last-public-hanging/|title=New Dumfries History Tour Marks Scotland's Last Public Hanging|website=Dumfries & Galloway! What's Going On?|date=10 May 2018|access-date=30 March 2022}} Two hours later, Crichton came upon Smith returning from the crime scene; fearing she could implicate him, Smith threw her to the ground and attempted to cut her throat, but she managed to escape. A group of men set out after Smith and found Scott's body several miles away.{{Cite web|url=https://www.executedtoday.com/2016/05/12/1868-robert-smith-the-last-publicly-hanged-in-scotland/|title=1868: Robert Smith, the last publicly executed in Scotland|website=Executed Today.com|date=12 May 2016|access-date=30 March 2022}}

Smith fled to a boarding house in nearby Dumfries, but was soon found and apprehended after the proprietor reported a man staying with blood on his clothes. A bootlace presumed to have been used to strangle Scott was found in his pocket. Smith was convicted of murder, rape, robbery and attempted murder and sentenced to death by hanging. He was hanged by Thomas Askern on 12 May 1868 at Buccleuch Street Prison (which, coincidentally, had hosted the hanging of Mary Timney, the last woman publicly executed in Scotland, some five years earlier).{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-43966378.amp|title=Dumfries: The site of Scotland's last public hanging|work=BBC News|date=12 May 2018|access-date=30 March 2022}} This was the last execution in Scotland before the Capital Punishment Amendment Act abolishing public executions came into force.{{cite web|url=http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/endpublic.html|title=The ending of public executions in the 19th century|author= Clark, Richard|website=Capital Punishment UK|access-date = 13 September 2024}}

Smith's death mask can be viewed in Dumfries Museum to this day.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-17769322|title=Mary Timney: the last woman publicly hanged in Scotland|work=BBC News|date=27 April 2012|access-date = 12 September 2024}}