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).
- ^ "Death penalty dead and buried". The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 March 2010. Archived from the original on 9 January 2022.
- ^ Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (May 2016). A world without the death penalty: Australia's Advocacy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty (PDF) (Report). Parliament of Australia. pp. 39–41. Retrieved 11 May 2024.