Ordinance 17 Victoria Number 7, entitled Ordinance for the Suppression of Violent Crimes Committed by Convicts Illegally at Large, was an

ordinance Ordinance may refer to: Law * Ordinance (Belgium), a law adopted by the Brussels Parliament or the Common Community Commission * Ordinance (India), a temporary law promulgated by the President of India on recommendation of the Union Cabinet * ...

that permitted capital punishment for escaped

convicts A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...

who committed violent crimes while on the run in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It was given

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

in May 1854, and not repealed until 1903. Designed to protect free settlers from violent crimes by escaped convicts, the ordinance permitted capital punishment for offences much less serious than the usual capital crimes of murder, rape and assault with intent to murder. Ordinance 17 Victoria Number 7 was only invoked three times in the

Convict era of Western Australia The convict era of Western Australia was the period during which Western Australia was a penal colony of the British Empire. Although it received small numbers of juvenile offenders from 1842, it was not formally constituted as a penal colony u ...

. In one case, a sentence of death was not passed; and in another, a sentence of death was passed but the sentenced men were reprieved by the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. The only occasion on which a sentence of death secured using the ordinance was carried out was in the

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of Party (law), parties to a :wikt:dispute, dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence (law), evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate claims or d ...

Robert Palin Robert Thomas Palin (c.1835 – 6 July 1861) was a convict transported to Western Australia. His execution in 1861 was the only time in the convict era of Western Australia that Ordinance 17 Victoria Number 7 was used to secure the capital punis ...

, who was hanged for robbery with violence.

References

* {{cite book , author=Bentley, Mollie , year=1983 , chapter=The Unwanted , editor=Erickson, Rica, title = The Brand on His Coat: Biographies of some Western Australian Convicts , pages=157–223 , location=Nedlands, Western Australia , publisher=University of Western Australia Press , isbn=0-85564-223-8 Convictism in Western Australia 1854 in Australia