John Vickers

John Wilson Vickers (died 23 July 1957) was a criminal from the United Kingdom who became the first person to be executed under the terms of the Homicide Act 1957. He had been convicted of the fatal bludgeoning of an elderly woman named Jane Duckett during a robbery in Carlisle. Vickers' appeal on the grounds that he had not intended to kill Duckett has become a leading case on the degree of malice needed to prove murder in English law.

Vickers was born in the town of Penrith, Cumbria. He had been a career thief from the age of eleven and was known to the police. in Carlisle owned by 72-year-old Jane Duckett, intending to steal money. Duckett interrupted Vickers during the robbery, prompting Vickers to violently beat her before fleeing without taking anything. the prosecution argued that "if a man of 22 kicks and punches an old lady of 72 he intends to cause her grievous bodily harm. If you are satisfied that Vickers did this, then he murdered her during the commission of a theft." Vickers was executed by Harry Allen at HM Prison Durham on 23 July 1957.