Penalties of Empire explores how judges, juries, and lawyers strove to deliver justice during the 150 years when the death penalty was in force in Hong Kong. Nine main chapters focus on key capital trials in the first century of British rule. Among the cases are piracy, assassinations, crimes of passion, and murders committed from desperation. These chapters describe the proceedings and participants in court. They also examine the public debates surrounding each case and the exercise of mercy by governors. Two final chapters discuss the decline of the death penalty after World War II, its suspension after 1966, and the controversies leading to its formal abolition in 1993. Penalties of Empire trace the evolution of criminal justice at its highest levels. It also offers a prism for understanding some of the broader forces at work in Hong Kong’s history. (Hong Kong History/Law)