Elvis Costello's 1989 song "Let Him Dangle" is a protest against capital punishment, centring on Derek Bentley, a 19-year-old British teenager executed in 1953 for his involvement in a warehouse break-in that resulted in a police officer's death. The case has long featured prominently in debates about capital punishment due to controversial legal circumstances, and Costello crafted the song as a direct statement against the horrors of execution rather than ironic commentary.

On 2 November 1952, Bentley and Christopher Craig (aged 16) broke into a Croydon warehouse; Craig carried a revolver whilst Bentley had a knife and brass knuckles. When police arrived, PC Sidney Miles was shot dead, and both were charged with murder under the doctrine of "constructive malice," which transferred the criminal intent of armed robbery to the shooting. Though Craig fired the fatal shot, only Bentley was old enough to be executed under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, which prohibited capital punishment for those under 18. Despite a jury recommendation for mercy, Bentley was sentenced to death and hanged on 28 January 1953 at Wandsworth Prison. Costello's song references the slain officer's widow and public protests surrounding the execution, using the case to question whether capital punishment constitutes justice.