Hong Kong's last execution was that of murderer Wong Kai-kei, 25, who was hanged in Victoria Prison on November 16, 1966. A year earlier, the British parliament abolished the death penalty. The death penalty, however, remained on Hong Kong's statute books until 1993.
Murder carried a mandatory death sentence. This had been the position since 1842, when common law was first applied to the colony. A mandatory death sentence also applied for convictions of treason and piracy with violence.
The last executions in public view were carried out at the Hong Kong Prison on April 5, 1894. Following the November 1966 hanging, all subsequent death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment by the governor of Hong Kong, under his prerogative of mercy.
In 1973, however, the governor withheld his mercy in the case of Tsoi Kwok-cheung, who had been convicted of murder.
Tsoi petitioned Queen Elizabeth who, acting on the advice of the colonial secretary, granted a pardon. It was argued that, had the death penalty been upheld, the move would not have the support of the British parliament, and by extension the British people, to whom the colonial secretary was answerable. Legal experts say this was an unprecedented intervention.
Despite calls in Hong Kong for the death penalty to be carried out in subsequent cases, the governor commuted the sentence. The view of the colonial administration was that the Queen would, in all cases, grant the petitioner a reprieve.