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
- MAY 12, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Maryama, a young woman from Iran, where she risks being...
Maryama, a young woman from Iran, where she risks being stoned to death for pornographic videos, can stay with her family in an Australian detention centre or sign a form which may see her deported to Iran
- MAY 11, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
A motion that the congress recommend the State Government...
A motion that the congress recommend the State Government reintroduce capital punishment for premeditated serious crimes, such as murder and sexual assault, was shot down
- APRIL 12, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Cold-blooded killer Mark Valera's life sentence was...
Cold-blooded killer Mark Valera's life sentence was not harsh enough, NSW Supreme Court of Appeal Justice Roderick Meagher suggested
- APRIL 2, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
An Australian woman has escaped the death penalty but...
An Australian woman has escaped the death penalty but will spend five years in a Middle East jail after being found guilty on drugs charges
- MARCH 31, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australia is negotiating with Iran to return more than...
Australia is negotiating with Iran to return more than 200 asylum seekers who have been refused refugee status in Australia
- MARCH 21, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Parliament...
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Parliament a television program used to support the treason claim against Zimbabwe's Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is extremely unconvincing
- MARCH 12, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
A Malaysian court charged an Australian woman with...
A Malaysian court charged an Australian woman with carrying heroin in transit under a law carrying a maximum sentence of five years in jail rather than the death sentence for traffickers
- MARCH 1, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
An Australian woman appeared in court in Malaysia on...
An Australian woman appeared in court in Malaysia on charges of trying to smuggle 3kg of heroin hidden in her corset onto a flight to Sydney
- FEBRUARY 27, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
A group of Australians gathered beside a largely forgotten...
A group of Australians gathered beside a largely forgotten grave site in South Africa to remember one of the nation's most controversial figures, Harry "Breaker" Morant
- FEBRUARY 26, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
A Perth man wrongly convicted over the hit-and-run...
A Perth man wrongly convicted over the hit-and-run manslaughter of his girlfriend almost 40 years ago won the battle to clear his name in one of Western Australia's most controversial justice cases
- FEBRUARY 25, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
David Hicks, the Australian prisoner in Cuba, was given...
David Hicks, the Australian prisoner in Cuba, was given a new ray of hope of being tried in Australia when the US said it would agree to repatriate British prisoners from Guantanamo Bay
- FEBRUARY 23, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Richards has written The Hanged Man: The Life and Death...
Richards has written The Hanged Man: The Life and Death of Ronald Ryan and it is a sad, powerful and important document, a new study of one of the darkest episodes in Australian history mounts a powerful argument against capital punishment
- FEBRUARY 22, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
West Australians demonstrated in front of the Supreme...
West Australians demonstrated in front of the Supreme Court, holding placards advocating the death sentence for paedophiles
- FEBRUARY 16, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Victoria's Chief Justice, John H
Victoria's Chief Justice, John H
- FEBRUARY 13, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Two of the world's biggest alleged drug barons, languishing...
Two of the world's biggest alleged drug barons, languishing in a high-security jail near Sydney, gave up their fight against extradition to the US after American authorities agreed not to execute them
- FEBRUARY 2, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
A Somali woman facing execution by stoning for adultery...
A Somali woman facing execution by stoning for adultery won a reprieve from the Federal Court from deportation to her homeland
- JANUARY 30, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Three Australian law students from Victoria are in...
Three Australian law students from Victoria are in the United States helping provide legal representation for inmates on death row
- JANUARY 30, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
An Australian woman faces a death sentence in Vietnam...
An Australian woman faces a death sentence in Vietnam after being arrested at Ho Chi Minh City's international airport carrying more than 800g of heroin
- JANUARY 28, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
An Aborigine elder is seeking the permission of Australia's...
An Aborigine elder is seeking the permission of Australia's highest court to have a police officer killed with a spear for putting out a sacred fire
- JANUARY 18, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
There has been speculation - it is nothing more - that...
There has been speculation - it is nothing more - that David Hicks, the Australian captured in battle against the Taliban and al-Qa'ida, could be condemned to death by US military tribunal
- JANUARY 18, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
David Hicks, a 26-year-old Autralian captured fighting...
David Hicks, a 26-year-old Autralian captured fighting with al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan in December 2001, has been transferred to a US marine base at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay
- JANUARY 18, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
David Hicks, a 26-year-old Autralian captured fighting...
David Hicks, a 26-year-old Autralian captured fighting with al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan in December 2001, has been transferred to a US marine base at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay
- JANUARY 14, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
In total, there are seven men still behind bars in...
In total, there are seven men still behind bars in Western Australia who were originally sentenced to death
- JANUARY 11, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Young Liberals state convention in Queensland was to...
Young Liberals state convention in Queensland was to discuss a motion for capital punishment for murderers and child sex offenders
- JANUARY 1, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australia abolished the death penalty for ordinary...
Australia abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 1984 and for wartime crimes in 1985
- JANUARY 1, 2002AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The last Australian to be legally executed was Michael...
The last Australian to be legally executed was Michael Denis McAuliffe, 38, who was hanged in Malaysia in 1993
- DECEMBER 14, 2001AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
[captured Taliban fighter] David Hicks is unlikely...
[captured Taliban fighter] David Hicks is unlikely ever to be tried for treason
- DECEMBER 13, 2001AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Treason was the worst possible crime against Australia,...
Treason was the worst possible crime against Australia, but the Adelaide man caught fighting for the Taliban should not face the death penalty, RSL president Peter Phillips said
- DECEMBER 13, 2001AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
There wide support for David Hick's [an Australian...
There wide support for David Hick's [an Australian captured fighting with the Taliban] execution
- DECEMBER 12, 2001AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Terrorist David Hicks, 26-year-old Adelaide man, captured...
Terrorist David Hicks, 26-year-old Adelaide man, captured in Afghanistan by Northern Alliance troops, could be guilty of treason