Ending capital punishment – a conversation

In 1967 Ronald Ryan was the last person to be executed in Australia. He was convicted of murder and hanged at Pentridge. Victoria was the last Australian state to abolish the death penalty in 1975. However, around the world, thousands of people face the death penalty every day. Their offences range from challenging religious authority and political protest, to being a drug mule, to murder. 

Can these countries be persuaded to give up the death penalty? Why did we abolish it in Australia?

On the 28th of September 2022 the Hon. Dr Barry Jones AC delivered the Justice Michael Kirby Oration at Victoria University. In his speech, which you can listen to here on ABC’s Big Ideas, Barry explores these questions by drawing on a range of current and historical sources. 

Purchase the Barry’s recently updated classic study of capital punishment The Penalty Is Death.