[1] The country's lack of executions puts it into the category of a state abolitionist in practice, where it retains the death penalty in law but has had a formal or informal moratorium for at least ten years.
Tonga's low rate of murder convictions forms part of the reason for the lack of executions, as well as its courts’ apparent unwillingness to impose the penalty unless it appears absolutely necessary to do so.
[23] In 2004, the Tongan Legislative Assembly voted on a bill which proposed to introduce the death penalty for possession of illicit drugs.
This bill was defeated by the Assembly by a vote of 10–7,[24] indicating that the death penalty, if Tonga continues to retain it, will not spread to become an applicable sentence for other crimes.
The issue of capital punishment was raised in 2005, when Tevita Siale Vola became the first person in Tonga to be convicted of murder in 24 years.
[25] However, Webster CJ did not impose the death penalty, on the basis that Vola's actions did not meet the threshold of "one of the rarest of rare cases where the alternative option of life imprisonment is unquestionably foreclosed.
The Australian government, which formed part of the investigative team for the riots, refused to hand over the autopsy reports of victims for fear of the death penalty being imposed on the suspects.
These included recommendations from Australia, Spain, and the United Kingdom to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is aimed at the abolition of the death penalty.
Italy suggested that Tonga “explicitly prohibit” this, with Slovakia recommending the “immediate” abolition of the death penalty for juvenile offenders.
Italy specifically mentioned that this would be in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and a contemporary resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations.