Australia
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Abolitionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · Australia abolished the death penalty for ordinary...
- News items in the archive
- 297
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Australia is classified as Abolitionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 297 news items on Australia, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- MARCH 20, 2004AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Nguyen Tuong Van, 23, a sales executive from Melbourne,...
Nguyen Tuong Van, 23, a sales executive from Melbourne, Australia, was sentenced to death after the Singapore High Court found him guilty of smuggling almost 400 grams of heroin
- DECEMBER 29, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The Afghan ambassador to Australia strongly denied...
The Afghan ambassador to Australia strongly denied suggestions that asylum seekers sent home had been killed, and threatened legal action against those making such claims
- DECEMBER 15, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that he...
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that he supported a possible death penalty for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein
- DECEMBER 9, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
A Bangladeshi gay couple seeking to stay in Australia...
A Bangladeshi gay couple seeking to stay in Australia because they fear death at home won a landmark appeal in the High Court and a refugee tribunal was told to re-evalutate their claim
- NOVEMBER 27, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
An assurance that Michael McCrea, a 45 year old British...
An assurance that Michael McCrea, a 45 year old British national wanted in Singapore over a double murder, would not face the death penalty if he was extradited from Australia was not legally enforceable, the Australian Federal Court was told
- NOVEMBER 25, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian officials said that the United States promised...
Australian officials said that the United States promised not to seek the death penalty against two Australian citizens being held at a detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with others captured during the war on terrorism
- OCTOBER 6, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Inflicting the death penalty was the ultimate acknowledgement...
Inflicting the death penalty was the ultimate acknowledgement of the failure of civilisation, Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby said
- SEPTEMBER 26, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian politicians united in welcoming a Nigerian...
Australian politicians united in welcoming a Nigerian appeal court decision to spare Amina Lawal from death by stoning
- SEPTEMBER 10, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The Australian government welcomed the conviction and...
The Australian government welcomed the conviction and death sentence imposed on Bali bomber Imam Samudra
- AUGUST 20, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
"The argument for capital punishment against terrorists...
"The argument for capital punishment against terrorists fails on three counts," said The Australian daily newspaper
- AUGUST 19, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Federal Liberal MP Alby Schultz said he had no doubt...
Federal Liberal MP Alby Schultz said he had no doubt Australia would again adopt the death penalty if the decision was left up to voters
- AUGUST 19, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
A Newspoll published in The Australian found that 56...
A Newspoll published in The Australian found that 56 per cent of respondents want the death sentence reintroduced for barbaric acts of terrorism
- AUGUST 12, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
"If we condone the execution of Amrozi bin Nurhasyim,...
"If we condone the execution of Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, we become no better than any others who employ death as a means to an end," wrote Rob Talbot in response to the death sentence handed down to Bali bomber Amrozi
- AUGUST 7, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The following is an edited text of Australian Prime...
The following is an edited text of Australian Prime Minister John Howard's response to the guilty verdict against Bali bomber Amrozi: "Good evening
- AUGUST 7, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australia will not make any approach to Indonesia to...
Australia will not make any approach to Indonesia to overturn the decision to impose the death penalty on Bali bomber Amrozi, Prime Minister John Howard said
- AUGUST 7, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The desire by families of Bali victims to see convicted...
The desire by families of Bali victims to see convicted bomber Amrozi suffer a painful death was a legitimate response from those who had lost loved ones, spiritual adviser to condemned men, Sister Helen Prejean, said
- JULY 24, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The US government promised not to seek the death penalty...
The US government promised not to seek the death penalty for David Hicks, an Australian terrorist suspect captured fighting against US forces in Afghanistan, officials said
- JULY 24, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The US government promised not to seek the death penalty...
The US government promised not to seek the death penalty for David Hicks, an Australian terrorist suspect captured fighting against US forces in Afghanistan, officials said
- JULY 17, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Le My Linh, an Australian woman condemned to death...
Le My Linh, an Australian woman condemned to death by a Vietnamese court in 2002 on drug trafficking charges, had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment
- JULY 9, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
"The Bali bombers who murdered my son last October...
"The Bali bombers who murdered my son last October are evil extremists, but they don't deserve the death penalty," Brian Deegan, the Adelaide magistrate farther of one of the victims of the Bali bombing, wrote in The Australian
- MAY 30, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected a call...
Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected a call for the death penalty for terrorists or hijackers
- MAY 3, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer...
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said that the Bali bombers should not be executed for the nightclub attacks which killed more than 200 people
- APRIL 24, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australia was a cosponsor and voted in favour of the...
Australia was a cosponsor and voted in favour of the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva
- MARCH 8, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Prime Minister John Howard backed executing...
Australian Prime Minister John Howard backed executing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden if he was captured, despite professing to be against the death penalty
- FEBRUARY 16, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that Indonesia...
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that Indonesia would have Australia's blessing if it imposed the death penalty on anyone convicted of the Bali bombings
- FEBRUARY 10, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty...
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty warned that imposing the death penalty on the Bali bombers would answer their wish to be treated as martyrs
- JANUARY 1, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australia is a world leader in seeking the abolition...
Australia is a world leader in seeking the abolition of capital punishment
- JANUARY 1, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The last Australian killed by an Australian judiciary,...
The last Australian killed by an Australian judiciary, Ronald Ryan, was hanged in Melbourne's Pentridge Prison on February 3, 1967
- JANUARY 1, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty was formally abolished in Australia...
The death penalty was formally abolished in Australia in 1985
- JANUARY 1, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australia abolished the death penalty for ordinary...
Australia abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 1984 and for wartime crimes in 1985