Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in Hong Kong was formally abolished on 23 April 1993 by virtue of the Crimes (Amendment) Ordinance 1993. Before then, capital punishment was the usual sentence given since the establishment of the

Crown Colony of Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the British ...

for offences such as murder,

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/ asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the ...

ending in death, and piracy. The last execution in Hong Kong was carried out on 16 November 1966 when Wong Kai-Kei (), age 25, was hanged at

Stanley Prison Stanley Prison (c. January 1937, previously known as Hong Kong Prison at Stanley) is one of the six maximum security facilities in Hong Kong. History Built in 1937, Stanley Prison is currently the oldest institution still in service (the old ...

. Wong was a Chinese-Vietnamese who, on 3 July 1966, was burglarizing the Chung Keen Company building in

Sham Shui Po Sham Shui Po is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui Po ...

when he was spotted by security guard Chan Fat-Sang (). Wong killed Chan and injured a woman in the subsequent fight, and was found guilty of murder and sentenced to execution by hanging. After his conviction, Wong attempted to appeal the sentence, claiming that he had confessed under duress, and also wrote to the Governor of Hong Kong

David Trench Sir David Clive Crosbie Trench (; 2 June 1915 – 4 December 1988) was a British Army officer and colonial governor. Early life Trench was educated at Tonbridge School, Tonbridge, Kent and graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge with the degre ...

seeking clemency. Reform Club chairman

Brook Bernacchi Brook Antony Bernacchi (; 22 January 1922 – 22 September 1996) was a lawyer and politician in Hong Kong. He was the long-time chairman of the Reform Club of Hong Kong, the then quasi-opposition party in the colony and the longest serving el ...

published an open letter against the sentencing, claiming that Hong Kong, as a British colony, should not retain the death penalty when Great Britain had suspended (later abolishing) the death sentence for murder in the previous year, 1965. Following Wong's execution, the death penalty was suspended. The Governor of Hong Kong would as a matter of course commute the sentences of those convicted under the death penalty to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

under the

Royal prerogative of mercy In the English and British tradition, the royal prerogative of mercy is one of the historic royal prerogatives of the British monarch, by which they can grant pardons (informally known as a royal pardon) to convicted persons. The royal prero ...

. In April 1993, capital punishment was officially abolished in Hong Kong. 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 despite that capital punishment is still regularly carried out in Mainland China.

References

Law of Hong Kong Capital punishment in China {{HongKong-law-stub

See also

References