【Acrylic Painting by Dennis Tang】
(Paintings and Photos may not be relevant to the incident described)
The last death penalty in Hong Kong was executed on 16 November 1966 when Wong Kai-Kei, aged 26 was hung at Stanley Prison. Wong’s case was appealed to the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court and Privy Council of the United Kingdom on grounds that death penalty was abolished in United Kingdom in 1965. However, the appeal failed and the original sentence of the death penalty was not overturned. Wong was executed by hanging at Stanley Prison on 16 November 1966.
Following Wong’s case, death penalty was suspended. The Queen or the Governor of Hong Kong would commute the sentences of those convicted under the death penalty to life imprisonment under “the Royal prerogative of mercy”. It was not until 1993 that capital punishment was officially abolished in Hong Kong.