The first execution in New Zealand was that of a young Maori named Maketu, convicted at Auckland in 1842. Walter Bolton became the last to be executed when he was hanged at Mount Eden prison in 1957. In total there were 83 verified executions for murder and one for treason in New Zealand between these dates.
Depositions against the gang began on 2 August 1866 and attracted great excitement. It was only now that it was revealed that Sullivan had informed on the others.
On 7 March 1842 Maketu Wharetotara, the 17-year-old son of the Ngāpuhi chief Ruhe of Waimate, became the first person to be legally executed in New Zealand.
Edward Te Whiu was one of the last four people executed in New Zealand. He admitted to killing 75-year-old widow Florence Smith, but his underprivileged background and childlike mental state led some to question the appropriateness of the death penalty.
Don McKenzie, a former prison psychologist at Mt Eden and retired director of research in the Justice Department, describes reactions to a hanging in the prison.
The Te Whakatōhea chief Mokomoko was one of five Māori executed on 17 May 1866 for being implicated in the murder of the missionary Carl Volkner at Ōpōtiki in 1865. The government punished Te Whakatōhea further for Volkner's death by confiscating of much of the iwi's land.
Burgess, Kelly and Levy were hanged. Joseph Sullivan, the fourth member of the 'Burgess gang', received a life sentence because he had turned Queen's evidence and helped convict his co-accused.
This law change also ended flogging and whipping as punishments for murder. National reintroduced the death penalty in 1950 but it was finally abolished as the penalty for murder in 1961.
Tuhiata, known as Tuhi, was hanged in Wellington for the murder of the artist Mary Dobie at Te Namu Bay, Ōpunake. Tuhi wrote to the governor days before his execution asking that 'my bad companions, your children, beer, rum and other spirits die with me'.
In 1895 Minnie Dean became the first (and only) woman to be hanged by law in New Zealand. Known as the 'Winton baby farmer', she had been convicted of the murder of baby Dorothy Edith Carter after a sensational trial in Invercargill.
Whanganui farmer Walter Bolton, aged 68, was hanged at Auckland's Mount Eden Prison after being controversially convicted of murdering his wife, Beatrice. The death penalty was abolished in 1961.
Maketū Wharetōtara, the 17-year-old son of the Ngāpuhi chief Ruhe, killed five people at Motuarohia in the Bay of Islands. In March 1842 he became the first person to be legally executed in this country.
Walter Bolton was the last person to be executed in New Zealand when he was convicted of poisoning his wife, Beatrice. He was hanged for her murder at Mount Eden prison. The death penalty for murder was abolished in New Zealand in 1961, and there were claims that this was due partly to the circumstances surrounding Bolton's case.
