Capital Punishment in South Australia, 1836–1964
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587000300403 |
| Author | A. R. G. Griffiths |
| Date | 01 December 1970 |
| Published date | 01 December 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
214 AUST. &N.Z. JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY (Dec., 1970): 3, 4
Capital Punishment
In
South Australia,
1836-1964
By A. R. G. GRIFFITHS*
MR. G.
J.
HAWKINS
and
Dr. D. Chappell, in
their
seminal
article on
the
need
for criminology in Australia, called for
the
facts
about
all
aspects of
crime.
They
suggested
that
Australian
criminologists
ought
to align
them-
selves
with
the
pragmatic
approach
of Professor Leon Radzinowicz
and
the
Cambridge school. This
approach,
by
distrusting
philosophizing
and
by call-
ing
for
the
facts,
treats
each
problem
as
it
arises
and
in
its
particular
con-
text
instead
of
approaching
all on
the
basis of some
general
prtnciple.'
Capital
punishment
is one
extremely
important
problem
where sensible
discussion is
often
handicapped
by
the
lack of
information.
State
Govern-
ments
have
been
reticent
about
divulging
the
number
of persons executed,
sentenced
to
death,
or released on probation.
But
historical
evidence does
exist
at
least
so
far
as
South
Australia
is concerned. Seventy-six
persons
have
been executed in
the
period
from
the
foundation
of
the
colony
in
1836
to
the
fall
of
Sir
Thomas
Playford's
Government
in
1964.2Two offenders
were women. Twenty-two Aboriginals, two
Indians,
and
one person from
China
were
hanged.
All
but
three
offenders were
hanged
after
being convicted of
murder.
Before 1840 one person was
executed
for
attempted
murder
and
two
others
were
hanged
for
stealing
five pounds.
The
three
exceptional cases involved
special circumstances.
The
victim of
attempted
murder
was
the
Sheriff
of
South
Australia,
Samuel
Smart.
An
attack
on
him
was seen as being
an
attack
on
law
and
order
and
the
very foundations of
the
new soctety,»
The
two thieves
hanged
were ex-convicts from New
South
Wales:
their
executions were
intended
to
deter
the
emigration
of
potential
criminals.
from
the
eastern
colonies.s Usually,
in
the
murder
cases,
the
victims were
in
similar categories. All
the
Aboriginals
hanged
had
murdered
Europeans
with
one exception.
Fifteen
men
were
hanged
for
murdering
their
wives.
Twenty-nine
murders
were
committed
in
the
country,
one
at
sea,
the
rest
in
Adelaide. Two police constables
and
one sheriff's officer were murdered.
:::
M.A. (Adelaide), Ph.D. (Cambridge),
Lecturer
in History, School of Social Sciences
The
Flinders
University
of
South
Australia. '
1. 40 A.L.J. 309.
2.
These
figures
and
those
following
were
taken
from records
kept
in Adelaide Gaol
and
Yatala
Labour
Prison. Mr. J. H. Allen,
Sheriff
and
Chief
Comptroller
of Gaols
and
Prisons
in
South
Australia,
and
his deputy, Mr. R. C. V. Heairfield,
kindly
gave
permission
for
the
records
to be consulted.
3. C. C.
Dutton
to Chief
Secretary,
5
July
1838,
787/1838/1444,
S.A. Archives.
4. The Adelaide Chronicle, 17
March
1840.
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