Sentences imposed by predecessor Australian governments, our 'Forefather Governors'
Less than one convicted murderer was executed annually during the final 30 years prior to the last execution in an Australian gaol in 1969
Rationale for seeking the Death Penalty to be Sentenced to One, Two or perhaps Three annually that is/are 'marked', or would be candidates Never to be Released, if found guilty Beyond any Doubt of a Sadistic, Brutal, Heinous, Unprovoked Crime/s
Australia’s Forefather Governors during the initial half of the 20th Century knew a thing or two about Punishments that Deterred criminal activity to ensure ‘crowd control’.
The Punishment rationale that applied in Australia even 80 years ago, namely Judicial Corporal Punishment for Adults in Australia until the mid-1940s, is still applied in three adjacent members of the Commonwealth of Nations in South East Asia that each have significantly lower crime rates than Australia.
Capital Punishment
1. History of Capital Punishment in Australia
2. Capital and Corporal punishment practiced in Australia until the mid-20th Century was swift, frightening and often painful - usually by hanging, dating back before the First Fleet until Ronald Ryan was the last convicted murderer hung in Victoria in 1967:
“Capital punishment had been part of the legal system of Australia since British settlement and during the 19th century, crimes that could carry a death sentence included burglary, sheep stealing, forgery, sexual assaults, murder and manslaughter, and there is one reported case of someone being executed for "being illegally at large". During the 19th century, these crimes saw about 80 people hanged each year throughout Australia”.
3. Australian Institute of Criminology - No. 3 - Capital Punishment - Feb 1987
4. Capital punishment in Australia - Wiki
5. Capital Punishment in Australia
Below is a table extracted from History of Capital Punishment in Australia - Australia Institute of Criminology - which evidences that for the states that maintained records, ACT and NT did not, that between -
* 1820 and 1899 inclusive, 1,520 convicted murderers were executed by hanging across Australia - 19 hangings each year, albeit the national population was very much smaller than today.
* 1900 and 1969 inclusive, 128 convicted murderers were executed by hanging across Australia - slightly less than two hangings each year, albeit the national population was much smaller than today.
* 1940 and 1969 inclusive, 21 convicted murderers were executed by hanging across Australia - 0.7 hangings each year, albeit the national population was much smaller than in 2022.
Hence, during the final 30 years that the Death Penalty was carried out in Australia (from 1940 to 1969 inclusive) less than one execution was carried out annually across the six Australia states - not incl ACT and the NT.
The 'mean' population in Australia during the same 30 years period was 9,262,380 citizens. Australia's population as at 30 Sept 2019 was 25,464,116 people. Hence, Australia's population is now 2.75 times larger than the mean population between 1940 and 1969 inclusive.
Extrapolating 2.75 times the national population against 0.7 executions annually, the equivalent quantum of executions annually would be 1.92 executions annually.
However, Western society has jumped ahead along the punishment/deterrent curve ostensibly due to the illicit drug scourge. Whereupon the incidence of criminal offences (from Level 1 to Level 6 of the Penalty Scale) as outlined in the Sentencing Act 1991 - Victoria and set out in Swift, Frightening and Painful Dose of Corporal Punishment, is higher pro-rata than during the final 30 years of executions being carried out in Australia. Hence, this Discussion Paper supports an average of two executions annually of the Most Monstrous, Heinous Convicted Murderers, Terrorists, Serial Rapists, Paedophiles and Child Killers, Terrorists, Serial Rapists, Paedophiles and Child Killers that were found Guilty beyond any doubt because -
A. Capital Punishment Deters Homicides
B. Average cost per inmate serving a Sentence of Life Without Parole (based on the average annual cost of Maximum Security Incarceration in 2020) across 76 Heinous Murderers over the last 35 years is $7,000,559
C. As at 30 June 2019, 2088 inmates were serving a Sentence of '20 years and over', 'Life Sentence' or 'Other'
D. Capital Punishment is more humane and civilised than Life without parole.
E. Manic Depression Identified In Medical Reports/Journals/Articles provides several articles and reports on the mental health of inmates facing longer prison Sentences.
F. Capital Punishment is Sentenced in many of the largest countries, including two Commonwealth of Nations countries in South-East Asia, and also Japan that executed 15 convicted murderers in 2018.
G. Other reasons to re-introduce Capital Punishment in Australia
Corporal Punishment
1. Corporal
Punishment
2.
3. Judicial Corporal Punishment Previously Sentenced In Australia
4. www.corpun.com - Judicial Corporal Punishment in Australia
5. Judicial Corporal Punishment of minors chronicled in four Newspaper Articles all published in May 1956 - 64 years ago
See:
Early Capital Punishment practices - globally
Corporal Punishment in Malaysia and Singapore
Corporal Punishment Is Administered
History of Capital and Corporal Punishment globally
corpun - 5,000 pages of factual documentation and resources on corporal punishment around the world, updated from time to time