In 1935 New Zealand became one of the first nations in the world to abandon the death penalty for murder. Fifteen years later the measure was recalled, before being withdrawn again in 1957. This paper looks at the factors underlying the abolition of hanging and its resurrection in 1950. Hanging had little effect on the nation’s homicide figures. It did, however, impact heavily on the individuals charged with administering it and through them prison management as a whole. Nonetheless, waves of emotionalism still, periodically, demand capital punishment’s return. In the context of a society which has recently abolished all peacetime provisions for judicial execution, this paper question not only the efficacy of capital punishment, but also its consequences for the penal system at large. © 1990 by Hemisphere Publishing Corporation.
