Capital Punishment 1860s

The exhibition explores why legal executions spiked in 1860s WA, with 42 individuals executed by hanging, double the number of any other decade. On display are significant items from the museum’s collection, including notebooks compiled by the first Chief Justice of Western Australia, Sir Archibald Paull Burt, at early criminal trial sittings of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Two trials, held at the Old Court House, are examined to illustrate how circumstances in the Swan River Colony during the 1860s contributed to the spike in legal executions.

Photo credits:

• Notebook compiled by Chief Justice Archibald Paull Burt at criminal trial sittings of the Supreme Court of WA during the 1860s. Old Court House Law Museum collection 1989.33b
• Petitioning letter written by Ticket-of-Leave man Cornelius Ahern and presented to Chief Justice Burt during his trial in 1867. Old Court House Law Museum collection 1989.33f
• Portrait of Sir Archibald Paull Burt, first Chief Justice of Western Australia, c.1860s. Courtesy of Royal Western Australian Historical Society P1999.1193unc