Capital punishment in Hong Kong

Capital punishment in Hong Kong was formally abolished on 23 April 1993 by virtue of the Crimes (Amendment) (No. 3) Ordinance. Before then, capital punishment was the usual sentence given since the establishment of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong for offences such as murder, kidnapping ending in death, and piracy.[1]

The last execution in Hong Kong was carried out on 16 November 1966 when Wong Kai-Kei, age 26, was hanged at Stanley Prison.[2] Following this, the death penalty was suspended.[3] One of the reasons was that the United Kingdom had begun the process of abolishing capital punishment in 1965, with the last two executions carried out in 1964 and final abolition completed in 1998.

The Governor of Hong Kong would as a matter of course commute the sentences of those convicted under the death penalty to life imprisonment under the Royal prerogative of mercy.[4] In April 1993, capital punishment was officially abolished in Hong Kong.[5] Since then, life imprisonment has been the most severe punishment in Hong Kong.

Under the principle of independence of legal system in Hong Kong Basic Law, Hong Kong has continued its repudiation of capital punishment after its handover to the People's Republic of China[6] despite the fact that capital punishment is still effectively carried out in Mainland China.

See also

References
  1. "Victoria Prison Decommissioning Open Day". The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
  2. "Demise of the Death Penalty", South China Morning Post, 23 March 2004. Official Notebook of Mr R.V Brimmicombie-Wood recording executions in 1966. On display at Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum.
  3. "A Chronology of CSD's Development and Penal Measures of Hong Kong". Hong Kong Correctional Services. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2009.
  4. "WORLD FACTBOOK OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS - HONG KONG by Ian Dobinson". Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice. Archived from the original on 3 May 2006.
  5. "Victoria Prison Decommissioning Open Day". The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
  6. "Basic Law in Full Text". The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.


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