Death Penalty in Australia

Australian Law

The last person executed in Australia was Ronald Ryan in 1967.

Australia is a federation of States. The Federal Government abolished the death penalty in 1973: Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 (Cth). All Australian States and Territories have abolished the death penalty.

(*) Though the death penalty for murder was abolished in NSW in 1955, NSW was the last state to completely abolish the death penalty when in 1985 capital punishment was abolished for treason and piracy: Crimes Amendment (Death Penalty Abolition) Act 1985 (NSW).

Australia has signed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which commits Australia to the abolition of the death penalty. For how this affects domestic law, see UNSWCCL's comment piece: The PM could protect us from the death penalty.

Australia voted for the UN General Assembly's resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty (18 December 2007).

Australia annually co-sponsors a resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission that calls for all nations to abolish the death penalty. The latest version of the resolution was passed on 20 April 2005 and is called The Question of the Death Penalty (UN Doc E/CN.4/RES/2005/59).

Background Paper: "The Death Penalty in Australia and Overseas"

You can read more about the death penalty in Australia in CCL's background paper on the death penalty. Included in the background paper are details of:

• history of the death penalty in Australia
• declining support in Australia for the death penalty
• extradition and the death penalty
• arguments against the death penalty