The Evolution of Capital Punishment in Australia: History and Debate

This essay delves into the complex history of capital punishment in Australia, beginning with its introduction through British colonization and its subsequent evolution. It examines the attitudes of the Australian public, media, and government towards the death penalty, highlighting key events such as the execution of Ronald Ryan, the Port Arthur massacre, and the Bali Nine case, and how these incidents shaped the debate surrounding capital punishment. The essay analyzes the legal and political processes that led to the abolition of the death penalty in Australia, including the role of federal and state governments, and the influence of international law. It further discusses the arguments for and against capital punishment, the impact of the Port Arthur massacre on gun control legislation, and the opposition to the Bali Nine ringleaders' executions. The essay concludes by asserting that, due to the aforementioned factors, the death penalty is unlikely to be reintroduced in Australia.

Running head: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 1
Capital Punishment
Name
Institutional Affiliation

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 2
Capital Punishment
Introduction
It is more than fifty years since the Australia’s execution. Ryan Ronald became the last
individual hanged by the neck to death on Feb 3, 1967 at the Pentridge Gaol, Melbourne for
murdering George Hodsonn, a prison officer. Hundreds of Australians campaigned against
Ryan’s hanging as well as death penalty (DP) as they cycled and protested outside the front gate.
Some men broke from the mainstream crowd, rushed at enormous roller-door gate and leaped
into air as they kicked at it. Following Ryan’s hanging, capital punishment stayed as the law in 5
of the 6 states (Anderson, 2016).
Queensland State had already abolished the practice in the year 1922, however, it was
reintroduced after a short while. Tasmania subsequently followed in the year 1968, subsequently
Victoria outlawed it in year 1975 after which South Australia abolished it in the year 1976. The
NSW alongside Western Australia abolished it in year 1984. In 1973, federal government
obliterated the practice in its territories while Crime Legislation Amendment (Torture
Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Act 2010 deterred any territory or state from
reinstating capital punishment (CP). Australia has since eliminated death penalty and it is argued
in this paper that CP will never be re-introduced in the country (McCafferty, 2017).
Terrible incidents like the Port Arthur massacre, Bali nine ring leader’s execution have
reignited the debate of capital punishment. However, Australian attitudes and 2nd protocol
agreement between the Federal government and states are being stood on the agreement. All this
evidence suggests that Australia’s attitudes towards the death penalty will never be supportive.
The CP is defined as a legal death punishment for criminal law violation. An individual who gets
CP has committed a serious crime such as murder, drug trafficking, rape, and terror.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 3
The conventional CP methods globally include beheading, hanging, stoning, lethal
injection, electrocution as well as shooting. Although CP was gradually abolished in Australia,
the debate has arisen periodically when public outcry has erupted as a result of the commission
of heinous criminal acts. Acts of terrorism in other parts of the world and countries have recently
fuelled recent debate. Therefore, it is possible that the death penalty could be reinstated in
Australia if demanded by its citizens. But it is doubtful to be reintroduced because Australian
political, public, and media attitudes during the Bali Nine Ring leader’s execution and Port
Arthur were against the death penalty.
The DP became a formal law in Australia through British colonization, however, DP was
already being practiced as a customary law amongst certain Aboriginal cohorts before 1788
(Anderson, 2015). State executions were applied during the colonial period due to forgery,
sheep-stealing, burglary or murder. Ivan Pots alongside John indicated that over 1500 individuals
were executed between the years 1820 and 1900 (Han & O'Mahoney, 2018). This reliable
primary source is accurate and provides the facts about the death penalty in Australia; it
represents that the powerless majority was helpless and forced to follow the harsh laws during
British colonization (Anderson, 2015).
Later it hurt Australian society shown by London Sun published in 1847, the highlighted
bold text in the carton “Awful Execution” represents the changing sentiments which were
opposed. The highlighted text gives an emotional appeal to the audience during British
colonization, to act against the barbaric laws. Between 1901 and 1967, 114 executions were
performed by Australian states. However, the use of DP declined slowly in Australia with eighty-
one of the one-hundred and fourteen cases occurring in the first twenty years of federation. It
represents public and media influence on the Federal government to bring changes in the laws.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 4
During the 1980s the United Kingdom and Australia abolished the death penalty at the same
time, which represents strong relations to the United Kingdom.
Discussion
Q1. Australian Attitudes towards Capital Punishments before British Colonization
The capital punishment existed in Australia before the British colonization. However,
there were both opponents and proponents to the practice in Australia. The proponents were
mainly the Aboriginal who had incorporated it into their customary laws. This means that death
sentences before colonization was being performed under the customary law of Aboriginal
directly or via witchcraft (Bennett, 2018). In certain cases, the convicted were deprived of
morgue rites. The initial DP performed based on European law in the country occurred in in the
year 1969 in Western Australia where the authorities from the Dutch hanged Batavia insurgents.
However, the opponents of death penalty vehemently opposed it and stood active in the 19th
century. This is what led to the formation of Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment
(SACP) at the public gathering in the year 1869 in Sydney.
Refined: How British Colonization Influenced CP in the 1780 and Consequence
The British colonization of Australia made the death penalty a formal law unlike before
when it existed as a customary law of certain Aboriginal groups before 1788 (Choo, 2016). After
the British settlement, the capital punishment became an integral part of the Australia’s legal
system. British thus introduced a list of wrongdoings that carried the death sentence including
sexual assaults, sheep-stealing, burglary, forgery, manslaughter alongside murder and even a
single case of a person getting executed due to “being illegally at large.” In the course of the
nineteenth century, such wrongdoings saw nearly eighty individuals hanged every year in the
entire Australia. Subsequently, the state executions became widespread in the colonial era

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 5
whereby they were now being use in forgeries, sheep-stealing as well as burglaries besides
murder cases. Over 1500 individuals were subsequently hanged between the year 1820 and 1900.
Between the years 1901 and 1967, the states of Australia undertaken the death penalty on 114
instances saves to the British colonization. The eighty-one of the 114 instances took place
during the first twenty years of the federation.
Q2: Australian, Media and Government Attitudes towards Last Death Penalty
The Australians, media as well as the government towards the death penalty was negative
and were opposed to the practice having been made a formal law by the Britain. For example,
following the execution of Ryan, hundreds of Australian vehemently campaigned against it.
People protested even before he was hanged as they opposed death penalty. They cycled to
protests outside the front gate. Men even broke from the foremost throng, and rushed at a big
roller-door gate thereby leaping into their air as they kick it to express their dissatisfaction with
such a law. Various state government were already gradually abandoning the capital
punishment. The governments had succumbed to the dissatisfaction of the people with the death
penalty. It was the Queensland state that first abandoned the capital punishment (Bohm, 2016).
Refined: How Federal Government Abolished CP in 1960s and It Encourage State Abolition
As different states were already abolishing the capital punishment, the federal
government saw the need to abolish the practice. The process to the abolition of the capital
punishment was as follows. Queensland State already ended the practice in 1922, however, it
was reintroduced after a short while. Tasmania subsequently followed in the year 1968, Victoria
in 1975 after which South Australia abolished it in year 1976. The NSW and Western Australia
abolished it in year 1984. In 1973, federal administration eradicated the practice in its territories.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 6
The Crime Legislation Amendment Act 2010 deterred any territory or state from reestablishing
capital punishment.
In year 1973, DPA Act 1973 of Commonwealth stopped Australia’s DP for the federal
wrongdoings. This Act highlighted in s.3 that it applied to all wrongdoings against the
Commonwealth law, Territories or even within Imperial Act while in s.4 it provided that an
individual is never subject to DP for any crime (Micale & Dwyer, 2018). Subsequently, under
the federal administration bridge, no executions were performed and the passage of this Act in
1973 saw the life imprisonment replacing the death penalty as their supreme punishment.
Following its implementation by Commonwealth, all states were dissuaded from carrying out
any executions and it is true that on more persons have been executed. On March, 11 2010, bills
were passed by Federal Parliament that deterred the DP from any reintroduction by all Australian
territories and states.
Refined: How Port Arthur Massacre Shook Australia and Attitudes towards CP
The Port Arthur massacre (PAM) significantly shook the nation and the reignited the
debates towards capital punishment. This massacre has had everlasting as well as deeply scaring
effect on many individuals. It split the families and people became unable to cope and
subsequently committed suicide. Other people are still recovering and receiving psychiatric
alongside psychological assistance. The fact is that many people will take such pain of April 28
events to their graves. Even after several years, the memory remains raw as well as tormenting.
A few ever articulate Martin Bryant’s name interestingly. Bryant is behind bars, however, for a
strange as well as perhaps inexplicable reason, every effort has been made to write the killer out
of script. Bryant is simple extremely monstrous to exists.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 7
The Port Arthur Massacre changed the attitude of people towards the death penalty.
Many people believed that Bryant was a candidate for execution rather than being in prison.
Having killed 35 persons and wounded 23 others, it stays as the deadliest mass shooting in
Australian history that has reignited the debate for the reintroduction of the capital punishment
(Dudley et al., 2016). Even though Martin Bryant was found guilty and subsequently given 35
life sentences without parole possibility, many people believed that such a punishment was never
commensurate and that only death penalty would be at least effective (Quinlan, 2016).
PAM (April, 28 1996) ushered in stringent gun control legislations by John Howard
(Prime Minister) within Australia. The Prime Minister also framed National Firearms
Programme Implementation Act (1996) which currently restricts private possession of high-
capacity semi-automatic rifles, pump-action shotguns, and semi-automatic shotguns alongside
the introduction of licensing of uniform firearms. The implementation received bipartite backing
by territories, state as well as Commonwealth (Bindler & Hjalmarsson, 2017).
Refined: Why Australian Government Opposed Bali Nine Ringleader Executions and Impacts
on Australian Society and International Relations with Indonesia
The Bali Nine refers to the nine Australians who were a cohort of oddity kinds trapped in
the globe which was nourished by gluttony as well as clearly little understanding of aftermaths.
The ringleaders include Andrew Chan and his former classmate Sukumaran from Sydney. Chan
was once tagged “The Godfather” by Indonesian authorities. Sukumaran and Chan were found
guilty of hotels, flight tickets and money provision to mules of drug on February 14 and were
subsequently sentenced to DP by the Indonesian firing-squad following the ruling that the duo
were the fundamental organizers in their scheme of heroin smuggling into Australia as well as
drug mules’ recruitment (Luscombe, Walby & Piché, 2018).

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 8
In Indonesia, DP is restricted to people committing terrorism, murder as well as drug-
linked wrongdoings, however, as per the international law, drug-linked crimes never meet the
“most serious crimes” threshold where DP remains a sensible penalty and this was the basis upon
which Australian government was opposed to their executions (Paternoster, 2016). Moreover,
Australian government argued that the duo had been rehabilitated during the decades spent in
prison and were hence subject for clemency. This was even supported by lawyers, family, and
prison workers citing in numerous instances how the duo had rehabilitated themselves.
Australian government argued that Sukumaran had resorted to art in his last years
whereas Chan studied to become a priest in prison. The duo even campaigned for art and
computer room to provide lesson to their fellow inmates which good grounds to be accorded
clemency (Maguire & Houghton, 2016). Notwithstanding the rehabilitation claims by Australian
government, and their opposition to death penalty for their citizens abroad, clemency petitions by
the duo stood dismissed by Joko Widodo, Indonesian President.
Australia government, through the Prime Minister, argued that they believed the duo
deserved punishment, but not executions as Australians in their millions were feeling ill in their
respective gannets at impending executions’ prospects. They argued that Indonesia had
accomplished what the penal systems globally aspired to do by rehabilitating the drug criminals
and, therefore, Australian Foreign Minister (Julie Bishop) called for mercy saying that he never
asking the government of Indonesia undertake anything aside from what it request other nations
in respect to citizen of Indonesia facing death-row in foreign countries, which included serious
drug wrongdoings.
There was a fierce debate raging in Australia over the utilization of CP in Sukumaran and
Chan scenario. Both Julie Bishop and Tony Abbott, Australia’s Foreign Minister and Prime

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 9
Minister respectively pleaded for their spare by Indonesian administration though such request
were never granted. Widodo took a rigid position on drug convicts and indicated that Indonesia
was in ‘emergency state’ because of deaths from drugs, with more than fifty young individuals
succumbing daily.
Hundreds of Australians joined together in Martin Place, Sydney on that Tuesday night in
a solidarity show against DP. Australia recalled its ambassador following the executions (Sarat,
2018). There were a public outrage at the executions of Bali Nine ringleaders which ran into
economic, diplomatic and political reality following the April, 29 2015 executions. Australian
society mourned such a loss of life and this worsened its bilateral relations with Indonesia. Julie
Bishop and Tony Abbott utilized strong diplomatic retaliation including the withdrawal of
ambassador, but rhetorical restraint to express anger at “unnecessary and cruel” executions.
Australian society faced an outpouring domestic anger while the government tried to balance it
necessary strong diplomatic response with its long-run national interest of relationship with
Indonesia (Istiqomah, 2016).
Q4: Second Optional Protocol
The Second Optional Protocol (SOP) to International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) is aiming at death penalty obliteration. It is a side agreement to ICCPR. It was
established on December, 15 1989 and subsequently enforced on July, 11 1991. By 2018
September, it had 86 member states besides Angola having signed buy yet to ratify the Protocol.
It commits its member states to the DP abolition within respective boundaries, though Article 2.1
authorizes member states a reservation that grants execution in case of war following a sentence
for the “most serious crime” of the military nature performed at times of war. Some member
states like, Cyrus, Chile, Brazil, Malta, El Salvour alongside Spain had originally made such

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 10
reservations but have since abandoned them whereas Greece and Azerbaijan still have active
reservations on the protocol implementation, notwithstanding having both abolished death
penalty in every circumstance (Loughran, Paternoster & Piquero, 2018).
There are long-term advantages of 2nd protocol agreement in terms of capital punishment
reduction and universal abolition. According to the Special Rapporteur, Marc Bossut who drafted
the text, the 2nd Optional Protocol serves two major purposes. The first person is that it
constitutes a global engagement by member states to eradicate the DP while second purpose is
that it acts as the “attraction pole” to urge by example states that are yet to make such
commitments to ratify (Edmonds & Maxwell-Stewart, 2016). The impact will be that states
commit never to execute within its jurisdiction and hence further prohibits the reintroduction of
death penalty because it has no mechanism for withdrawal. In this sense, the Protocol gives a
firm guarantee against death penalty reinstatement at national level. Moreover, its significance
surpasses the national dimension. Globally, it shall eventually outlaw executions as well as
establish unequivocally a principle that DP is a human rights’ violation, specifically right to life
(Donohue, 2016).
Conclusion
This paper has argued that death penalty or capital punishment will never be reinstated in
Australia. It has painted Australia as a country which is fully committed to total abolition and
deterrence of death penalty. Various instances and reasons have been given that informs
Australia’s antagonism to the DP. It is, thus, apparent that death penalty will come a thing of the
past with the continued SOP’s ratification. Nevertheless, this paper recommends that for Second
Optional Protocol to be realized, support for the Protocol with regards to the number of States
parties, has to hit “critical mass.” This is because the higher the number of State parties ratifying

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 11
the Protocol, the closer it will come to establish a principle that DP remains human rights’
violation and elevate it to an international law’s customary norm.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 12
References
Anderson, C. (2015). Execution and its Aftermath in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire.
In A Global History of Execution and the Criminal Corpse (pp. 170-198). Palgrave
Macmillan, London.
https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/31686/6/AndersonCriminalCorpseFORMATTED.pdf
Anderson, C. (2016). Transnational histories of penal transportation: Punishment, labour and
governance in the British imperial world, 1788–1939. Australian Historical
Studies, 47(3), 381-397.
https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/38513/4/1031461X.2016.1203962.pdf
Anderson, S. (2015). Punishment as pacification: The role of Indigenous executions on the South
Australian frontier, 1836-1862. Aboriginal History, 3-26.
https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=774874872693575;res=IELAPA
Bennett, R. E. (2018). Capital Punishment and the Criminal Corpse in Scotland, 1740-1834.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 13(4), 3-68.
https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/37503/1/2016BennettRPhD.pdf
Bindler, A., & Hjalmarsson, R. (2017). The Fall of Capital Punishment and the Rise of Prisons:
How Punishment Severity Affects Jury Verdicts, 12(1), 20-56
https://editorialexpress.com/cgi-bin/conference/download.cgi?
db_name=RESConf2017&paper_id=332 .
Bohm, R. M. (2016). Deathquest: An introduction to the theory and practice of capital
punishment in the United States. Routledge, 13(4), 12-53.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/28140298

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 13
Choo, C. (2016). The Health Of Aboriginal Children in Western Australia 1829–1960.
In Aboriginal Children, History and Health (pp. 102-116). Routledge.
file:///C:/Users/noahh/Downloads/9781315666501_preview.pdf/
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315666501
Donohue, J. J. (2016). Empirical analysis and the fate of capital punishment. Duke J. Const. L. &
Pub. Pol'y, 11, 51.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/70a5/253c26ac66c20b995bfef6b4baed751ae673.pdf
Dudley, M. J., Rosen, A., Alpers, P. A., & Peters, R. (2016). The Port Arthur massacre and the
National Firearms Agreement: 20 years on, what are the lessons?. Medical journal of
Australia, 204(10), 381-383. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2016/204/10/port-arthur-
massacre-and-national-firearms-agreement-20-years-what-are-lessons
Edmonds, P., & Maxwell-Stewart, H. (2016). " The Whip Is a Very Contagious Kind of Thing":
Flogging and humanitarian reform in penal Australia. Journal of Colonialism and
Colonial History, 17(1). http://ecite.utas.edu.au/108559
Han, E., & O'Mahoney, J. (2018). British colonialism and the criminalization of homosexuality:
Queens, crime and empire. Routledge, 14(4), 13-67. https://www.routledge.com/British-
Colonialism-and-the-Criminalization-of-Homosexuality-Queens-Crime/Han-
OMahoney/p/book/9780815367925
Istiqomah, I. A. (2016). THE REPRESENTATION OF BALI NINE EXECUTION
CASE (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia), 15(3), 3-67.
http://repository.upi.edu/23978/2/S_ING_100089_Abstract.pdf
Loughran, T. A., Paternoster, R., & Piquero, A. R. (2018). Individual Difference and Deterrence.
In Deterrence, Choice, and Crime, Volume 23 (pp. 221-246). Routledge.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 14
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351112710/chapters/10.4324/978135111271
0-8
Luscombe, A., Walby, K., & Piché, J. (2018). Making punishment memorialization pay?
Marketing, networks, and souvenirs at small penal history museums in Canada. Journal
of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 42(3), 343-364.
https://www.academia.edu/14444624/Making_Punishment_Memorialization_Pay_Marke
ting_Networks_and_Souvenirs_at_Small_Penal_History_Museums_in_Canada
Maguire, A., & Houghton, S. (2016). The Bali Nine, capital punishment and Australia's
obligation to seek abolition. Current issues in criminal justice, 28(1), 67-91.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10345329.2016.12036057
McCafferty, J. A. (2017). Capital punishment. Routledge, 13(3), 4-45.
https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Punishment-James-McCafferty/dp/0202363287
Micale, M. S., & Dwyer, P. (2018). Introduction: History, Violence, and Steven
Pinker. Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques, 44(1), 1-5.
https://experts.illinois.edu/en/publications/history-violence-and-steven-pinker
Paternoster, R. (2016). Deterring Corporate Crime: Evidence and Outlook. Criminology & Pub.
Pol'y, 15, 383. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1745-9133.12200
Quinlan, M. (2016). “Such is Life”: Euthanasia and capital punishment in Australia: consistency
or contradiction?. Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular
Ethics, 6(1), 6. https://philarchive.org/rec/MICSIL/
https://philarchive.org/archive/MICSIL

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 15
Sarat, A. (2018). When the state kills: Capital punishment and the American condition. Princeton
University Press, 12(1), 3-56. https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/when-the-
state-killscapital-punishment-and-the-american-condition.html