LAST week, we ran a story on Fiji’s last execution by hanging in 1964. It is only fair that this week we refresh your memory of a story on Fiji’s first execution in 1872.
Historical records claim that the death sentence was meted out as a form of punishment before cession on October 10, 1874.
This was during the time Bau chief Ratu Seru Cakobau was trying to formalise his government with the urging of some white settlers.
It preceded the days of the Executive Council and the Legislative Council, which were established by Fiji’s provisional colonial head, Sir Hercules Robinson (1874) and Sir Arthur Gordon, respectively (1875).
A few months before cession, in the month of February, eight men were sentenced to death over a murder on Ovalau. We are told, some of the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
On May 28, 1872, Fiji held its first execution by hanging, one which went down in the annals of public executions as extraordinarily bizarre or as some would say “for all the wrong reasons”.
Two days after the execution, The Fiji Times of June 1 described what happened as a”horrible and brutalising”disaster.
On the day, a man only known as Franks was scheduled to face the gallows for the murder of Thomas Muir on board the ship Marion Rennie.
“He had been sentenced to suffer the extreme penalty of the law, and was to have been hanged on Monday, the 27th, but a gross miscarriage of justice was allowed to occur,” The Fiji Times remarked.
But as crazy as it sounds, the day turned out to be something like the Shakespearean “comedy of errors” but without the slapsticks, mistaken identities and wordplays
According to the story, at the appointed time the execution did not take place, for the simple reason that it did not suit the “private convenience of the sheriff”.
It seemed that being the first killing of its kind in the colony, authorities were not fully conversant with the requirement and processes of the punishment.
Uncertain over his fate, the poor condemned man was left in a state of “harrowing and unimaginable anxiety”. In the evening, when he was due to be hung, he was informed that he would instead be executed the next morning, at 6 o’clock.”
That might have seemed like a temporary relief to Franks, but it only prolonged his morbid fear. His misery was extended by a few hours.
While the condemned Franks was in his cell, counting down his hours and probably saying his last prayers, all necessary prepping was carried out by the hangman in the night.
In those days, the hangman was both respected and feared. Some wore hoods and masks for fear of being attacked in public.
The colonial hangman ensured the rope was fixed, knotted into the famous hangman’s noose and properly adjusted.
Then something amazing happened – the rain fell over Ovalau just as it had fallen over the island countless times before.
But on this particular night, the rain was somewhat peculiar. It did a good job of bathing the rope, a very thick one, that it had to be dried before a fire.
In readiness for the early dawn killing, the hangman fixed his rope was again, adjusted the noose, before walking the murderer on the scaffold.
There was hushed silence as he slipped the noose over the wretched man’s head. But things went awry again.
The hangman had to sit down and with the use of his feet pull with all his might to make the knot run.
“Then after placing it over Frank’s head, he had the utmost difficulty in making it fit anything like tight, but not nearly so tight as it should have been,” The Fiji Times noted.
Then the drop fell and the rope tightened, but with a slow dull thud.
The few seconds of this procedure required precision and skill for it was viewed that a fast and clean execution allowed the punished to die with some level of dignity. Any mistake would decapitate the body or prolong brain death.
After the drop, Franks was hanging – motionless and departed.
He was apparently brain dead for a good three minutes when his limbs began to twitch and move again. He gave several groans before regaining consciousness.
He pleaded with those around him to put him out of his agony by letting him “meet his Maker in peace.’
Though he was properly suspended, he raised one arm, got hold of the rope and relieved himself from the strain of the noose on his neck.
He continued to beg to be put out of his misery, telling those around him that he forgave them “for the ‘black job’.
As if that was enough drama, the farce did not end there.
One of the officials, acting on impulse, ran towards Franks to cut him loose but in the process, he fell to the ground with a heavy thud. No one caught him in his fall and he suffered the consequences.
It was just not Franks day and he could not believe his fortune. He was taken back to his prison cell, escaping what could have been the entering of his name as the first criminal in Fiji to be executed by hanging.
That first execution was an unparalleled joke. Its effect upon the spectators was so overwhelming that one strong man actually fainted away.
“Thus the majesty of the law in Fiji has been asserted. Its most terrible sentence, death, has been attempted to be inflicted, and signally failed,” The Fiji Times said.
Franks, after going through the most terrible ordeal of his life and almost meeting his death and his Maker in the process, was later reprieved.
There was no attempt made to hang him again. The mood on the day was that Franks deserved his miraculous escape and any effort to have him face the gallows again would have ended up in a riot.
He had suffered the penalty of the law.
Twice he experienced unimaginable horrors and after being hanged and cut down by the officials, his served his punishment.
“The sentence was that he be hanged until ‘dead,’ but instead of being so hanged the officers of the law cut him down before death. The man should be free, for it must be clear that the law cannot punish him twice for the same offence,” The Fiji Times said.
After the unsuccessful hanging, the popular opinion was that the best way to deal further with Franks was to pay for his passage out of the country.
“Franks states that when the bolt was drawn and he fell, he thought he felt something break at the back of his neck, and he was praying and thinking of God and heaven, “ said The Fiji Times, “then the memory of a wreck from which he was rescued passed before his mind. He saw himself cling to the chains till washed away; then seizing a rope attached to a floating spar, and clinging to it until washed back again on deck by a heavy sea. “
“All the details of the wreck passed through his mind, and then came the thought, ‘Why do I not die?’ And found he could breathe he suspected foul play and an intention to torture him by prolonging his sufferings. Then he spoke and clutched the rope, willing and wishing to die, but not a prolonged death.”
