The Short Title of this Act is “The Criminals Executions Act, 1883.”

In all cases including treason, where any person is condemned to death, the sentence shall be that such person shall be taken to the place of execution, and there hanged by the neck until such person is dead.

Whenever sentence of death is pronounced by any Court or Judge, such Court or Judge shall not, either in or by such sentence or at any time, make any order for the disposition or burial of the body of the person on whom the sentence is to be executed;

The body of any person on whom sentence of death is carried into execution shall be buried either within the prison or place where such execution shall have taken place, or in such other place as the Governor may direct, either as to the particular case or generally as to all executions in the prison where such execution shall have been had.

Whenever sentence of death is pronounced by any Court or Judge, it shall be the duty of the Sheriff of the district in which the execution is to take place to carry out such sentence, but he shall not proceed to execute the same till be has received an intimation of the Governor’s pleasure with respect to such sentence.

Such Sheriff shall, within seven days after receiving a notice that the Governor will not interfere with such sentence, carry out the same.

Every Gaoler or other person in whose custody any criminal condemned to death may be is hereby authorized and required to deliver such criminal to such Sheriff on his demand; and the liability of such Gaoler or other person delivering such criminal shall cease on such delivery, and such criminal shall thenceforth be deemed to be in the legal custody of the Sheriff.

Except as hereinafter provided, sentence of death passed upon any person shall be carried into execution within the walls or the enclosed yard of some prison, or within some other enclosed place.

The Governor shall from time to time, by notice gazetted, appoint such prisons and other places as he may think proper to be prisons or places where executions may take place; and may revoke such appointments, and, if he thinks fit, appoint other places in lieu thereof.

All appointments so made and subsisting at the passing of this Act shall be deemed to have been made under this Act.

The Sheriff, the Gaoler, any of the officers of the prison whose attendance the Sheriff may require, and a medical practitioner shall be present at every such execution, together with any Justices of the Peace and ministers of religion who may desire to attend, and such military and police guard, and also such other male adult spectators not exceeding ten unless under permission from the Governor, as the Sheriff may think fit to admit, but no other persons whatsoever.

Every one of the persons aforesaid who attend or are present at any such execution shall continue and remain within the walls or enclosed yard of the prison or other enclosed place until the sentence has been carried into execution and completed according to law, and until the medical practitioner has signed a certificate in the Form numbered I. in the First Schedule to this Act;

And the Sheriff, Gaoler, and other officers of the prison, and also such other of the persons present as may think fit, shall, before their departure from the prison or place of execution, subscribe a declaration according to the Form numbered II. in the said Schedule.

The body of any person on whom the sentence of death is carried into execution as aforesaid shall not be buried or removed from the prison or place where such execution takes place within eight hours next after such execution, and every person who shall within that time produce to the Gaoler or other person in charge of the body an order from a Justice of the Peace requiring such Gaoler or other person to admit the bearer of such order to view the body of such person shall be admitted by such Gaoler accordingly.

Whenever any execution takes place, it shall be the duty of the Sheriff to give notice thereof forthwith to a Coroner, not being the Sheriff carrying out the execution, or, in the absence of any such Coroner, to a Justice of the Peace, who shall, as soon as conveniently may be, hold an inquest upon the body of the person upon whom the sentence of death is executed;

And the jury, which shall not include any of those who witnessed the execution, on such inquest shall inquire and find whether such sentence was duly carried into effect on the body of the person condemned to execution.

Any person who shall subscribe any certificate or declaration as aforesaid knowing the same to be false or to contain any false statement shall be deemed guilty of a crime, and, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be liable to be sentenced to penal servitude for any term not exceeding six years.

Every such certificate and declaration as aforesaid shall be forthwith transmitted by the Sheriff to the Registrar of the Supreme Court for the district within which such execution has taken place, and shall be kept in his office as a record of the said Court, and shall be gazetted.

The Governor in Council may, in any special case in which the circumstances may appear to render it expedient, direct that sentence of death passed upon any person as aforesaid shall be carried into execution at some particular time and place within the colony to be in such order set forth, and shall in every such case make such provisions for carrying the sentence into execution as may be necessary.

The Acts and part of an Act enumerated in the Second Schedule hereto are hereby repealed.