This chapter traces the global legacies of empire and colonialism through their effects on punishment and in particular death as punishment. We consider penal regimes and practices in colonial settings, and the contemporary manifestations of these in the postcolonial world. What are the forces shaping the journey from past to present, from colonialism to postcolonialism? What happens to punishment regimes once independence has been achieved? Are repressive laws and policies swept away, or do they linger on, animating new expressions of power and control? The chapter considers judicial death under colonial rule, in the transitions from slave society to post-emancipation, and in the postcolony, considering also the role of extra-judicial death within this schema. We follow the thread of capital punishment as an aspect of British colonialism. However, the web of connections we draw between centre and periphery, and past and present, could be applied to other versions of colonialism.