Map featuring the year of the last execution and the year of abolition.
Capital punishment in Australia has been abolished in all jurisdictions since 1985. Queensland abolished the death penalty in 1922. Tasmania did the same in 1968. The Commonwealth abolished the death penalty in 1973, with application also in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. Victoria did so in 1975, South Australia in 1976, and Western Australia in 1984. New South Wales abolished the death penalty for murder in 1955, and for all crimes in 1985. In 2010, the Commonwealth Parliament passed legislation prohibiting the re-establishment of capital punishment by any state or territory.[1] Australian law prohibits the extradition or deportation of a prisoner to another jurisdiction if they could be sentenced to death for any crime.[2]
The last execution in Australia took place in 1967, when Ronald Ryan was hanged in Victoria following his conviction for killing a prison officer while escaping from Pentridge Prison. Between Ryan's execution in 1967 and 1984, several more people were sentenced to death, but had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. The last death sentence was given in August 1984, when Brenda Hodge was sentenced to death in Western Australia (and subsequently had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment).
History
People legally executed in Australia by jurisdiction
Before the arrival of Europeans, death sentences were carried out under Aboriginal customary law, either directly or through sorcery.[3] In some cases the condemned could be denied mortuary rites.[4] The first executions carried out under European law in Australia took place in Western Australia in 1629, when Dutch authorities hanged the mutineers of the Batavia.
Capital punishment had been part of the legal system of Australia since British settlement. During the 19th century, crimes that could carry a death sentence included burglary, sheep stealing, forgery, sexual assaults, murder and manslaughter, and there is one reported case of someone being executed for "being illegally at large". During the 19th century, these crimes saw about 80 people hanged each year throughout Australia.
Australian states and territories had laws against homosexuality during the colonial era, and nineteenth-century colonial parliaments retained provisions which made homosexual activity a capital offence until 1861.[5] Most jurisdictions removed capital punishment as a sentence for homosexual activity, although in Victoria it remained as such when committed while also inflicting bodily harm or to a person younger than the age of fourteen until 1949.[5]
Of the seven men in Australian history known to have been executed for sodomy, six cases involved the sexual abuse of minors; only one of the seven cases was for consensual acts between adults.[6]
Before Federation, each colony made its own criminal laws and punishments. Since then the States have been responsible for most criminal law. Since Federation in 1901, 114 people have been legally executed in Australia (excluding the historical territories of New Guinea and Papua where executions occurred under Australian law).[7] For lists of people executed in Australia, sorted by state or territory, see the sidebar.
Federal jurisdictions
Commonwealth
In 1973 the Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 of the Commonwealth abolished the death penalty for federal offences. It provided in Section 3 that the Act applied to any offence against a law of the Commonwealth, the Territories or under an Imperial Act, and in s. 4 that "[a] person is not liable to the punishment of death for any offence".
No executions were ever carried out under Commonwealth criminal laws,[dubious–discuss] and the passage of the Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 saw the death penalty replaced with life imprisonment as the maximum punishment. On 11 March 2010, Federal Parliament passed laws that prevent the death penalty from being reintroduced by any state or territory in Australia.[1]
The Commonwealth will not extradite or deport a prisoner to another jurisdiction if they could be sentenced to death for any crime. A recent case involving this was the case of American Gabe Watson, who was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife in North Queensland, and faced capital murder charges in his home state of Alabama. His deportation was delayed until the government received assurances that he would not be executed if found guilty.[citation needed]
War Crimes Act 1945
Following the conclusion of World War II, the Chifley government passed the War Crimes Act 1945, allowing for the trial of Japanese military personnel and collaborators accused of war crimes in Australian territories. Those trials were separate to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East separately convened by the Allied powers for the trial of Japanese civilian leaders.[8]
A total of 137 people were executed under the War Crimes Act 1945, with the final executions taking place on Manus Island in 1951.[9] Most trials were held in New Guinea, although three took place in Darwin; 300 trials were held for 807 accused, with approximately two-thirds convicted and 226 death sentences imposed.[8] Trials were carried out by the military and were initially not subject to review by civilian authorities. Given the large numbers of executions, there were administrative challenges in finding soldiers willing to make up firing squads and in finding qualified hangmen.[9]
Australian Capital Territory
No executions were carried out in the Australian Capital Territory, where federal legislation abolished capital punishment in 1973.[citation needed]
The Australian administration of Nauru as a League of Nations mandate applied the criminal code of Queensland as at 1 July 1921, which allowed for capital punishment. It remained in place until Nauru's independence in 1968.[10]
Between 1800 and 1846, over 30 people were executed on Norfolk Island, which was a penal colony at the time. On one day in 1846, William Westwood and 11 other convicts were hanged for their involvement in the Cooking Pot Uprising.
There were nine executions between 1893 and 1952. Seven of them took place at Fannie Bay Gaol, the other two at regional locations close to where the crime took place.
The former gallows at Fannie Bay Gaol
The last execution in the Northern Territory was a double hanging at Fannie Bay Gaol on 8 August 1952. The death penalty was abolished in 1973.[11]
Papua administrator Hubert Murray wrote to Prime Minister James Scullin in 1930 emphasising the need for retention of the death penalty, stating:[13]
In Papua the position of the European is that of a small garrison, upholding the cause of civilization among a more or less hostile or indifferent population of primitives; and obviously the lives of this small garrison and the honour of the women must be protected. And we believe that the only adequate protection is death. A failure to afford an adequate protection would jeopardise the cause of civilization, and might bring about the horrors of a racial war.
Executions were carried out infrequently in Papua, with none from 1916 to 1930 and two in the 1930s. They were more frequent in New Guinea, where "Australian administrators struggled to control the villages".[8]
The last execution under the Australian administration of Papua New Guinea took place in Lae in November 1957, when Aro was hanged for the murder of his two wives.[14] Death remained the mandatory sentence for wilful murder until 1965, when it was abolished by the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly.[15]
Public executions
In 1907, the Deakin government approved an amendment to the Queensland criminal code as applied in Papua, to allow for the resumption of public executions.[13]
Public executions were seen as a "tool of government" in the Territory of New Guinea. In 1933, a district officer reported that two executions in New Britain had been carried out before crowds of nearly 1,000 people, and that "execution of the murderers on the spot has done much to make these natives fall in with the wishes of the government".[13]
During World War II, following the Japanese occupation of New Guinea, executions of civilians convicted of collaboration with the Japanese were carried out by the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU). The ANGAU was controlled by the Australian military but was charged with carrying out the civilian administration of the territory. At least 22 civilians were publicly executed in New Guinea in 1943 and 1944, with the death sentences approved by Australian commander Edmund Herring.[12]
The last execution in New South Wales was carried out on 24 August 1939, when John Trevor Kelly was hanged at Sydney's Long Bay Correctional Centre for the murder of Marjorie Constance Sommarlad. New South Wales abolished the death penalty for murder in 1955, but retained it as a potential penalty for treason, piracy, and arson in naval dockyards until 1985. New South Wales was the last Australian state to formally abolish the death penalty for all crimes.
A total of 94 people were hanged in the Moreton Bay/Queensland region from 1830 until 1913.[16] The last person hanged was Ernest Austin on 22 September 1913 for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Ivy Mitchell.
The only woman to be hanged was Ellen Thompson on 13 June 1887; she was hanged alongside her lover, John Harrison, for murdering her husband William.
The Adelaide Gaol was the site of forty-four hangings, from Joseph Stagg on 18 November 1840 to Glen Sabre Valance, murderer and rapist, on 24 November 1964. Three executions also occurred at Mount Gambier Gaol, five at country locations out of Port Lincoln, three at Franklin Harbor, one at Streaky Bay and two at Fowler's Bay.[21]
Elizabeth Woolcock, the only woman ever to have been executed under South Australian law, was hanged on 30 December 1873. Her body was not released to the family and was buried between the inner and outer walls of the prison, identified by a number and the date of the execution.
In the late 1950s, Don Dunstan became well known for his campaign against the death penalty being imposed on Max Stuart, who was convicted of rape and murder of a young girl, opposing then-Premier Thomas Playford IV over the matter.
In 1976, under the premiership of then-Premier Dunstan, the Criminal Law Consolidation Act1935 (SA)[23] was modified so that the death sentence was changed to life imprisonment.
In the early days of colonial rule, Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen's Land, was the site of penal transports. Mary McLauchlan was convicted in 1830 for infanticide; she was sentenced to both death and dissection.[24][25] She was the first woman to be hanged in Tasmania.
The last execution was on 14 February 1946, when serial rapist and killer Frederick Thompson was hanged for the murder of eight-year-old Evelyn Maughan. The death penalty was abolished in 1968.[26]
Victoria's first executions occurred in 1842 when two Aboriginal men, Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner, were hanged outside the site of the Melbourne Gaol for the killing of two whalers in the Westernport district.[27]Ronald Ryan was the last man executed at Pentridge Prison and in Australia. He was hanged on 3 February 1967 after being convicted of shooting dead a prison officer during an escape from Pentridge Prison, Coburg, Victoria in 1965.[28]
Victoria was also the state of the last woman executed in Australia: Jean Lee was hanged in 1951. She was accused of being an accomplice in the murder of 73-year-old William ('Pop') Kent. She, along with her accomplices, were executed on 19 February 1951. Victoria would not carry out another execution until that of Ronald Ryan.[29]
Not all those executed were murderers: for instance, Albert McNamara was hanged for arson causing death in 1902, and David Bennett was hanged in 1932 after being convicted of raping a four-year-old girl. Bennett was the last man to be hanged in Australia for an offence other than murder.[30]
The beam and trapdoor used to execute condemned prisoners were removed from Old Melbourne Gaol and installed in D Division at Pentridge Prison by the condemned child rapist David Bennett, who was a carpenter by trade. It was used for all 10 Pentridge hangings (including a double hanging). After Victoria abolished capital punishment in 1975, the beam and trapdoor were removed and put into storage. The beam was reinstalled at the Old Melbourne Gaol in August 2000, although the trapdoor had been modified during installation at Pentridge and no longer fitted.[32]
The vote to abolish the Death penalty in Victoria 1975 was the following, in the Victorian Legislative Assembly was 36-30 in favor, in the Victorian Legislative Council was 20-13 for abolition. All 9 labor members in the legislative council, 11 liberal members voted in favor. 7 liberals and all 6 Country voted against.[33]
Following British colonization, between 1833 and 1855 executions by firing squad and hanging were performed at a variety of places, often at the site of the offence. Even with the construction of the new Perth Gaol in 1855 as the main execution site in the state, some executions were carried out at various country locations until 1900. In 1886 the Fremantle Prison was handed over to the colonial government as the colony's major prison; from 1889 43 men and one woman (Martha Rendell) were hanged there.
The first execution under British law was that of Midgegooroo, who on 22 May 1833 was executed by firing squad while bound to the door of the original Perth Gaol. John Gavin, a Parkhurst apprentice, was the first British settler to be executed in Western Australia. In 1844 he was hanged for murder at the Fremantle Round House, at the age of fifteen. Bridget Larkin was the first woman to be executed in Western Australia, for the murder of John Hurford, in 1855. "It is the sentence of this court that you be returned to your former custody, and at a time and place appointed by the Governor-in-Council, that you be hanged by the neck till you are dead, and may the Lord have mercy on your soul". The last execution was that of Eric Edgar Cooke on 26 October 1964 at Fremantle Prison. Cooke had been convicted on one count of murder, but evidence and his confessions suggested he had committed many more. The last sentence of death in Western Australia was passed in 1984,[34][35] but the female killer (Brenda Hodge)[36] in question had her sentence commuted to imprisonment for life, as was customary by this stage.
Capital punishment was formally removed from the statutes of the state with the passage of the Acts Amendment (Abolition of Capital Punishment) Act 1984.
Public opinion
In Australia, capital punishment was banned on a state-by-state basis through the 20th century. Despite the ban, polls have indicated varying support for the reintroduction of the practice. After the (wrongful) conviction of Lindy Chamberlain for murdering her baby Azaria there was a surge in demands that she be hanged. The overturning of her conviction caused a short-lived drop in support for the death penalty. A 2005 Bulletin poll showed that most Australians supported capital punishment. The Australian National University's 2007 Electoral Survey found that 44 per cent of people thought the death penalty should be reintroduced, while only 38 per cent disagreed. In the 2002 case of the Bali bombers, then prime ministerJohn Howard stated that Australians expected their execution by Indonesia.[37][38]
On occasion the issue of capital punishment is published in the media or is subject to media and public support and scrutiny. Most occasions where capital punishment is brought up in the media, it is regarding current cases of intense media coverage regarding murder, rape and in extreme circumstances such as terrorism. On various occasions, the media and public express support for capital punishment for the most heinous of crimes including mass murder such as in the cases of the Milat Backpacker Murders and the Bryant Port Arthur massacre, in which a total of 35 people were killed stirring strong emotions as to whether or not to reintroduce the death penalty. However, no person of significant stature or influence has advocated the death penalty for quite some time since the last execution in 1967.
In 2009 a public opinion survey was conducted by Roy Morgan Research where responders were given the question: "In your opinion, should the penalty for murder be death or imprisonment?" The surveyors conducted the poll for people from 14 and onwards in age with around 687 people completing the survey for publication.[39][40] The results of the poll are as follows:
Date
Death penalty %
Imprisonment %
Undecided %
December 1947
67
24
9
February 1953
68
24
8
April 1962
53
37
10
November 1975
40
43
17
October 1980
43
40
17
January 1986
43
41
16
July 1986
44
40
16
July 1987
49
37
14
February 1989
52
34
14
February 1990
53
35
12
June 1990
51
35
14
May 1992
46
39
15
May. 1993
54
36
10
August 1995
53
36
11
November 2005
27
66
7
December 2005
25
69
6
August 2009
23
64
13
In 2014 another public opinion survey was conducted by Roy Morgan Research where responders were given the question: "If a person is convicted of a terrorist act in Australia which kills someone should the penalty be death?" The surveyors conducted the poll with a cross-section of 1,307 Australians. The poll showed a small majority of Australians (52.5%) favoured the death penalty for deadly terrorist acts in Australia while 47.5% did not.[41]
↑ Finnane, Mark (2022). "'Upholding the Cause of Civilization': The Australian Death Penalty in War and Colonialism". International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy. 11 (3): 26. doi:10.5204/ijcjsd.2473. hdl:10072/418380.
↑ "Two executed". Northern Standard. Darwin, Northern Territory. 8 August 1952. p.1. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as a punishment for a crime. It has historically been used in almost every part of the world. Since the mid-19th century many countries have abolished or discontinued the practice. In 2022, the five countries that executed the most people were, in descending order, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United States.
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom predates the formation of the UK, having been used in Britain and Ireland from ancient times until the second half of the 20th century. The last executions in the United Kingdom were by hanging, and took place in 1964; capital punishment for murder was suspended in 1965 and finally abolished in 1969. Although unused, the death penalty remained a legally defined punishment for certain offences such as treason until it was completely abolished in 1998; the last to be executed for treason was William Joyce, in 1946. In 2004, Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights became binding on the United Kingdom; it prohibits the restoration of the death penalty as long as the UK is a party to the convention.
Capital punishment was abolished via the legislative process on May 2, 2013, in the U.S. state of Maryland.
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Capital punishment was abolished in the U.S. state of North Dakota in 1973. Historically, a total of eight people have been executed in North Dakota, including one execution prior to North Dakota attaining statehood.
Capital punishment has been abolished in Iowa since 1965. Forty-five men were executed by hanging in Iowa between 1834 and 1963 for crimes including murder, rape, and robbery.
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