On December 10, 1962 Ronald Turpin, 29, was one of the two last people to be executed in the Dominion of Canada. The other prisoner was Arthur Lucas

Arthur Lucas

Arthur Lucas, originally from the U.S. state of Georgia, was one of the two last people to be executed in Canada, on December 11, 1962. Lucas had been convicted of the murder of an undercover narcotics agent from Detroit...

 who was executed alongside Turpin at the Toronto (Don) Jail

Don Jail

The Toronto Jail is a provincial jail for remanded offenders in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Riverdale neighbourhood on Gerrard Street East near its intersection with Broadview Avenue. It gets its nickname from the nearby Don River...

. Turpin had been convicted of the murder of Metropolitan Toronto

Metropolitan Toronto

The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was a senior level of municipal government in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area from 1954 to 1998. It was created out of York County and was a precursor to the later concept of a regional municipality, being formed of smaller municipalities but having more...

 police officer Frederick Nash. Nash had pulled Turpin over for a broken taillight while the latter was fleeing a robbery. The method of execution was hanging

Hanging

Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

, the only form of capital punishment

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

 ever used within the Dominion. In 1976, capital punishment for murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

 was removed from Canada's Criminal Code

Criminal Code of Canada

The Criminal Code or Code criminel is a law that codifies most criminal offences and procedures in Canada. Its official long title is "An Act respecting the criminal law"...

, although it could have been used under the National Defence Act

National Defence Act

The National Defence Act is the primary enabling legislation for organizing and funding Canada's military....

until 1998.