The commission was set up by the Attlee government in an attempt to defuse the long-term political debate over capital punishment.
The Royal Warrant establishing the commission (dated 4 May 1949) instructed their inquiry to assume the retention of the death penalty.
[1] In their report, the Commission described their own task as "trying to find some practical half-way house between the present scope of the death penalty and its abolition"[1] The thirteen commissioners met 63 times in total, holding their first meeting on 27 May 1949.
[3] In order to determine which cases of homicide ought to receive the death penalty, the commissioners sought to devise a classification of murder in terms of degrees of severity.
[5]: 632–3 Its report said M'Naughten should be "abrogated" and the jury should be left "to determine whether at the time of the act the accused was suffering from disease of the mind (or mental deficiency) to such a degree that he ought not be held responsible.