List of people executed in New Zealand

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A total of 85 people were executed under New Zealand's capital punishment system while it was in force. An additional five people were executed under military regulations in World War I.

1 List of executed persons
- 1.1 Military executions
2 Number of executions by location
3 References

[edit] List of executed persons

#	Name	Executed	Details
1	Wiremu Kingi Maketu	7 Mar 1842, Auckland	First person to be judicially executed in New Zealand (although not the first person sentenced to death). Convicted of murdering the family for whom he was working as a farm-hand.
2	Joseph Burns	17 Jun 1848, Auckland	Convicted of murdering a naval officer and his family at Devonport Naval Base in order to rob them.
3	Maroro	19 Apr 1849, Wellington	Convicted of murdering a man and his son in a fit of rage at a previous conviction for theft — he denied having any particular connection to his victims.
4	William Good	17 Jun 1850, Wellington	Convicted of murdering a seaman.
5	William Bowden	27 Apr 1852, Auckland
6	Charles Marsden	12 Feb 1856, Auckland	Convicted of murdering a Maori woman of the Te Arawa iwi. The incident caused significant tension between Te Arawa and the government, with some members of Te Arawa threatening to storm the prison and kill Marsden should the government not act against him.
7	John White	11 Jul 1856, Auckland
8	John Killey	18 Mar 1858, Auckland
9	James Collins	30 Jan 1862, Wellington	A Colour-Sergeant convicted of murdering an officer who had constantly tried to bully him. The first person to be executed privately, rather than in public.
10	Teherei	10 Jul 1863, Picton
11	Richard Harper	2 Sep 1863, Auckland
12-13	Ruarangi	18 Apr 1864, Auckland
12-13	Nikotema Okoroa	18 Apr 1864, Auckland
14	Alexander McLean	21 Oct 1864, Auckland
15	William Andrew Jarvey	24 Oct 1865, Dunedin	Convicted of poisoning his wife with strychnine in order to marry his mistress.
16	John Jones	6 Apr 1866, Dunedin
17	James Stack	7 Apr 1866, Auckland	Convicted of murdering his wife and her three brothers.
18-22	Mokomoko	17 May 1866, Auckland	Convicted of killing Karl Völkner, a missionary who was believed by the Te Whakatohea iwi to be a government spy. See Volkner Incident.
	Heremita Kahupaea
	Hakaraia Te Rahui
	Horomona Propiti
	Mikaere Kirimangu
22-24	Richard Burgess	5 Oct 1866, Nelson	Convicted of murdering and robbing four people on the road from Nelson to the West Coast goldfields. A fourth man, Joseph Sullivan, was spared the death penalty for testifying against the others.
	Thomas Kelly
	William Levy
25	Robert Wilson	20 Dec 1867, Nelson
27	John Densley Swales	16 Apr 1868, Lyttelton
28	Whakamau	23 Mar, Wellington
29	Hamiora Pere	16 Nov 1869, Wellington	Charged with treason, and the only person to be executed in New Zealand for a crime other than murder. A participant in Te Kooti's War.
30	Anthony Noble	16 Feb 1871, Hokitika
31	Simon Cedeno	5 Apr 1871, Lyttelton	A butler to William Robinson, a wealthy land-owner and a member of the Legislative Council. Convicted of murdering a maid of the household, apparently after suffering racist insults. Cedeno was from Central America, and was black.
32	Kereopa	5 Jan 1872, Napier
33	Joseph Eppwright	29 Jul 1873, Auckland
34	Charles Dyer	30 Oct 1874, Auckland	Convicted of murdering his mistress by dousing her in kerosene and then setting her alight.
35	Nutana	19 Feb 1875, Auckland
36	John Robinson Mercer	7 May 1875, Lyttelton
37	William Henry Woodgate	25 Jan 1877, Picton
38	Martin Curtain	6 Feb 1877, Auckland
39	Te Mohi	23 May 1877, Auckland
40	James Walsh	19 Feb 1879, Invercargill
41	Ah Lee	5 Nov 1880, Dunedin
42	Tuhiata	29 Dec 1880, Wellington
43	Wiremu Hiroki	8 Jun 1882, New Plymouth
44	Taurangaka Winiata	4 Aug 1882, Auckland
45	John Donohue	11 June 1884, Hokitika
46	Rowland Herbert Edwards	15 Jul 1884, Napier
47-48	John Caffrey	21 Feb 1887, Auckland	Convicted of murdering Robert Taylor of Great Barrier Island, father of Caffrey's one-time fiancée, Elizabeth Anne Taylor. The intent was to abduct Elizabeth, but they came to believe that they had been detected, and decided to flee to Valparaiso in a vessel stolen from Caffrey's employers. They were forced to turn back by a storm, and managed to hide for a time in Australia before being returned to New Zealand. Taylor's girlfriend, Grace Cleary, accompanied the two, but was apparently uninvolved in the murder and was not charged.
47-48	Henry Penn	21 Feb 1887, Auckland
49	Haira Te Piri	13 May 1889, Napier
50	Makoare Wata	28 Sep 1889, Napier
51	Alexander James Scott	22 May 1892, Auckland
52	Minnie Dean	12 Aug 1895, Invercargill	The only woman to be executed in New Zealand. A "baby-farmer" convicted of killing children in her care.
53	Etienne Brocher (aka Stephen Bosher)	21 Apr 1897, Wellington
54	William Sheehan	21 Jul 1897, Lyttelton
55	Frank Philpott	23 Mar 1898, Wellington	Convicted of murdering a rival for the affection of a woman.
56	Charles Clements	12 Apr 1898, Dunedin
57	Enoka	2 May 1898, New Plymouth
58	Alexander McLean	31 Aug 1901, Lyttelton
59	James Ellis	28 Feb 1905, Wellington
60	Tahi Kaka	21 Jun 1911, Auckland
61	Alfred Mortram Biddle	13 Dec 1913, Lyttelton
62	Arthur Rottman	18 Mar 1915, Wellington	Convicted of murdering Joseph and Mary McCann, who employed him on their farm, with an axe.
63	Frank Edward Bennier	19 Jan 1918, Wellington
64	Frederick William Eggers	5 Mar 1918, Lyttelton
65	Dennis Gunn	22 Jun 1920, Auckland
66	Samuel John Thorne	20 Dec 1920, Auckland
67	Hakaraia Te Kahu	10 Oct 1923, Auckland
68	John Tuhi	19 Apr 1923, Wellington
69	Daniel Cooper	16 Jun 1923, Wellington	A "baby-farmer" convicted of killing children in his care.
70	Robert Herbert Scott	17 Apr 1924, Auckland
71	Arthur Thomas Munn	29 Jul 1930, Auckland
72	George Coats	17 Dec 1931, Wellington	A worker on the Mount Victoria Tunnel excavations, convicted of murdering his pregnant girlfriend and hiding her body on the site.
73	Edward Tarrant	6 Mar 1933, Wellington
74	John Hubert Edwards	11 Dec 1933, Auckland
75	George Edward James	15 Dec 1933, Wellington
76	Bill Bayly	20 Jul 1934, Auckland	A farmer convicted of murdering his neighbours, and suspected of earlier murdering his cousin.
77	Charles William Price	27 Jun 1935, Wellington
Capital punishment abolished from 1935 to 1950
78	William Geovanni Silveo Fiori	13 Mar 1952, Auckland
79	Eruera Te Rongapatahi	14 Sep 1953, Auckland
80	Harry Whiteland	21 Dec 1953, Auckland
81	Frederick Foster	7 Jul 1955, Auckland
82	Edward Te Whiu	18 Aug 1955, Auckland
83	Harvey Allwood	13 Oct 1955, Auckland
84	Albert Laurence Black	5 Dec 1955, Auckland
85	Walter James Bolton	18 Feb 1957, Auckland	Last person judicially executed before the abolition of capital punishment in New Zealand. Found guilty of poisoning his wife.
Capital punishment abolished for ordinary crimes in 1961, abolished for all crimes in 1989

[edit] Military executions

In addition to those executed under New Zealand's regular criminal justice system, five New Zealand soldiers fighting as part of the Allied war effort in World War I were court martialed and executed.

#	Name	Executed	Details
1	Frank Hughes	25 Aug 1916	Convicted of desertion.
2	John Sweeney	2 Oct 1916	Convicted of desertion.
3	John Braithwaite	29 Oct 1916	Convicted of mutiny. After first being incarcerated for repeatedly being away without leave, he was accused of instigating a prison riot, although he claimed that he only involved himself in an attempt calm it.
4	John King	19 Aug 1917	Convicted of desertion.
5	Victor Spencer	24 Feb 1918	Convicted of desertion.

The executions, carried out by firing squad, were not made public at the time. All five were pardoned in 2000 when Parliament concluded that their conviction had been unjust, and that today, all would be regarded as mentally unfit to serve.

[edit] Number of executions by location

Initially, executions could be conducted at any suitable location — in at least one case, the prisoner was taken to the scene of the crime for execution. Later, the number of locations was reduced to only two — Auckland (generally Mount Eden Prison) and Wellington (generally Mount Crawford Prison). In total, ten cities were the sites of executions.