Capital punishment in Australia

Capital punishment in Australia has been abolished in all jurisdictions. Queensland abolished the death penalty in 1922. Tasmania did the same in 1968, the federal government 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 federal government passed legislation prohibiting the re-establishment of capital punishment by any state or territory.^[1] Neither the Commonwealth nor any of the states will extradite or deport a prisoner to another jurisdiction if they will face the death penalty, and police co-operation with other countries which have the death penalty has been questioned.^[2][3]

The last execution in Australia took place in 1967, when Ronald Ryan was hanged in Victoria. Between Ryan's execution in 1967 and 1985, 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 by Western Australia (and subsequently had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment).

History

Death sentences were carried out under Aboriginal customary law, either directly or through sorcery. 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 and 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.

Before and after federation, each state made its own criminal laws and punishments. For a full list see:

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 carried out under the bridge of the federal government and the passage of the Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 saw the death penalty replaced with life imprisonment as their maximum punishment. Since the Commonwealth effects of utilising this Act no more individuals have been exposed to the death penalty and it is now replaced with life imprisonment.

On 11 March 2010 Federal Parliament passed laws that prevent the death penalty from being reintroduced by any state or territory in Australia.^[1]

Neither the Commonwealth nor any of the states will extradite or deport a prisoner to another jurisdiction if they will face the death penalty. 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.

New South Wales

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 three more obscure crimes (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.

Victoria

Old Melbourne Gaol gallows

Victoria’s first executions occurred in 1842 when two Aboriginal men were hanged outside the site of the Melbourne Gaol for the killing of two whalers in the Westernport district.^[5] Ronald Ryan was the last man executed at Pentridge Prison and in Australia. Ryan was hanged on 3 February 1967 after being convicted of the shooting death of a prison officer during a prison escape from Pentridge Prison, Coburg, Victoria in 1965. Ryan was the last of 186 executions.^[6]

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 16 years later when it became the last state to carry out an execution in 1967 with Ronald Ryan.^[7]

Not all those executed were murderers. Albert McNamara was hanged for Arson in 1902 and David Bennett, hanged in 1932, was convicted of raping a four-year-old girl.^[8] The number includes the triple murderer Edward Leonski, executed by the U.S. Army in 1942.^[9]

The beam used to execute the condemned prisoner was removed from Old Melbourne Gaol and installed in D Division at Pentridge Prison by the condemned child rapist David Bennett. It was used for all 10 Pentridge hangings. After Victoria abolished capital punishment in 1975 the beam was removed and put into storage. It was reinstalled at the Old Melbourne Gaol in August 2000.^[10]

Queensland

A total of 94 people were hanged in the Moreton Bay/Queensland region during 1830-1913.^[11] The last person hanged was Ernest Austin, for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. Only one woman was hanged, Ellen Thompson (1887). She was convicted of murdering her husband with the help of her lover.

In 1922 Queensland became the first part of the British Commonwealth to abolish the death penalty.^[12]

Western Australia

In Western Australia, the first legal executions were under Dutch VOC law on 2 October 1629 on Long Island, Houtman Abrolhos (near Geraldton), when Jeronimus Corneliszoon and six others were hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children.

Following British colonization, between 1833 and 1855 hangings 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, executions were also 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 1 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.

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 (indeed anywhere in Australia) was passed in 1984,^[13][14][15] but the female killer (Brenda Hodge)^[16] 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.

South Australia

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 and three executions also occurred at Mount Gambier Gaol.

Two Ngarrindjeri men were controversially executed by hanging along the Coorong on 22 August 1840, after a drumhead court-martial conducted by Police Commissioner O'Halloran on the orders of Governor George Gawler. The men were found to be guilty of murdering the twenty-five survivors of the shipwreck Maria a few months before.^[17]

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 1976, the Criminal Law Consolidation Act was modified so that the death sentence was changed to life imprisonment.

Tasmania

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.^[18][19] She was the first woman to be hanged in Tasmania.

The last execution was in 1946, that of serial murderer and rapist Frederick Thompson. The death penalty was abolished in 1968.^[20]

Australian Capital Territory

No executions were carried out in the Australian Capital Territory, where federal legislation abolished capital punishment in 1973.

Northern Territory

Aborigines who lived in the Northern Territory came under the European law of Australia even though they did not have any contact with the government.

There were several outcries over Aborigines receiving mandatory death sentences for murder, leading to the passage of the Crimes Ordinance 1934 which allowed for discretionary sentences when both the accused and the victim were Aboriginal.

The last execution was a double hanging in 1952, and the death penalty was abolished 1973.

Public opinion

Australia banned capital punishment on a state-by-state basis through the 20th century. Despite the ban, polls indicate varying support for the reintroduction of the practice.^[21] However, there have been recent cases where Australians contradicted this, such as the case of the Bali bombers, in which then prime minister, John Howard, stated Australians expected their execution by Indonesia.^[22]

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 committed against humanity including mass murder such as in the cases of the Milat Backpacker Murders and the Bryant Port Arthur massacre, in which a combined 42 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. The death penalty was completely abolished and outlawed in Australia with the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009 passing the Australian Senate without amendments in March 2010.^[23]

The table below reflects the results of a public opinion survey conducted by the Roy Morgan institute where responders were given the following 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 in December 2009.^[24] The results of the poll are as follows:

• Source: Roy Morgan Research

References

Notes

External links

• List of Executions in the State of Victoria
• 'The Death Penalty' (Queensland), Life & Death in the Sunshine State (2015).