Capital punishment in the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

, a state in free association with

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, was officially part of the legal system until 2007, although the punishment had never actually been put into practice. The death penalty was legal under New Zealand colonial rule. The Cook Islands Act 1915, which governed both the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

and Niue, provided for the mandatory death penalty for both treason and murder.Cook Islands Act 1915, s178 The method of execution was by hanging. When New Zealand temporarily abolished the death penalty for murder from 1941 to 1949, it did not extend abolition to the Cook Islands. When the government of Niue was split from the Cook Islands in 1957, the use of the death penalty was reaffirmed, and provision was made for executions to be carried out in New Zealand. In October 1956 Rima Kurariki was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The sentenced was commuted to life imprisonment in 1957. New Zealand abolished the death penalty for murder in 1961. Abolition was extended to the Cook Islands in 1962. Post-independence, the Cook Islands government reaffirmed the death penalty for treason in section 76 of the ''Crimes Act 1969''. This was defined as participation in a war against the Cook Islands or New Zealand, an attempt to overthrow the Cook Islands government, or an attempt to harm the

Queen of New Zealand The monarchy of New Zealand is the constitutional system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of New Zealand. The current monarch, King Charles III, ascended the throne following the death of his mot ...

. The laws regarding capital punishment were based on New Zealand law at the time. Further provisions for the death penalty were enacted in the ''Criminal Procedure Act 1980-1981''. The Cook Islands announced the removal of its legal provisions for capital punishment in 2007, without ever having put them into use.

References

{{Oceania in topic, Capital punishment in 2007 disestablishments in the Cook Islands

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

Law of the Cook Islands Death in the Cook Islands Society of the Cook Islands