February 18 marks the 60 th anniversary of the last state execution in New Zealand – when Walter Bolton was hanged in 1957 for murdering his wife.
Five years later the law was finally changed, abolishing the death penalty for murder and ending 30 years of complicated parliamentary and political wrangling.
The roof of Mount Eden Prison in Auckland.
Abolition of capital punishment for murder (the death penalty) became an issue in the 1930s.
The Labour Party opposed capital punishment and after it took office in 1935 it commuted all death sentences to life in prison. It then abolished the death penalty for murder by amending the Crimes Act in 1941.
The National Government restored the death penalty in 1950, and from 1951 to 1957 there were 18 convictions for murder and eight executions.
The election of a Labour Government in 1957 resulted once again in all death sentences being commuted. However its wafer-thin majority meant the Government was not keen to introduce new legislation to again abolish capital punishment.
When National returned to power in 1960, a majority of the party’s MPs still favoured the death penalty, as did a large sector of public opinion. Ralph Hanan, the Minister of Justice, was one of a handful who didn’t.
In 1961 Hanan introduced an amendment to the Crimes Act to abolish capital punishment for murder. A conscience (free) vote on the amendment passed by 41 to 30, with the support of ten government MPs, including future Prime Minister Robert Muldoon.
Capital punishment for murder had been abolished and remains so to this day. However capital punishment was retained for treason until the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act in 1989.