[stealing – capital punishment]

R. v. Bennett

Court of Criminal Judicature

Collins J.A., May 1788

Source: David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in N.S.W., Vol .1, 22 (Originally Published 1798)

[22] The month of May opened with the trial, conviction, and execution of James Bennett, a youth of 17 years of age, for breaking open a tent belonging to the Charlotte transport, and stealing thereout property above the value of five shillings. He confessed that he had often merited death before he committed the crime for which he was then about to suffer, and that a love of idleness and bad connexions had been his ruin. He was executed immediately on receiving his sentence, in the hope of making a greater impression on the convicts than if it had been delayed for a day or two.