Capital punishment in the Cook Islands, a state in free association with New Zealand, was officially part of the legal system until 2007, although had never actually been put into practice.
Under Cook Islands law, capital punishment only ever applied to the crime of treason, for which it was the automatic sentence. 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 laws regarding capital punishment were based on New Zealand law at the time, although New Zealand later abolished capital punishment. The Cook Islands announced the removal of its provisions for capital punishment in 2007, without ever having put them into use.
The chosen method of execution in the Cook Islands was hanging.
Famous quotes containing the words capital punishment, capital, punishment and/or cook:
“Many of us do not believe in capital punishment, because thus society takes from a man what society cannot give.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“Oh, a capital ship for an ocean trip,
Was the Walloping Window Blind;
No gale that blew dismayed her crew
Or troubled the captain’s mind.”
—Charles Edward Carryl (1841–1920)
“If we could do away with death, we wouldn’t object; to do away with capital punishment will be more difficult. Were that to happen, we would reinstate it from time to time.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“I alternate between reading cook books and reading diet books.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)