THE SENTENCE ON KAKA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 147, 22 June 1911, Page 2

THE SENTENCE ON KAK A.

r ; (To tlie-Editor.) ■■•; ■- indeed, be a gruesome and, unpleasant business to sign a P.eti-. tion, or take any active -part m getting a human 'Being (even though a'-niUKderer)" hanged! - It is much onore" in accordance with the nature's "and sympathies of most of us to sign a petition for the reprieve of a condemned criminal, for .the-- idea of deliberately putting to death"a fellow-being, under" any "cir£.uni'.sXances whatever,, must of necessity fill .our- -minds with something approaching to horror. We do not". lynch-;criminals here. We are not .approaching- the posi.tion of some of tlie American States; or of South,. Aifrjca, in taking the law into Olir. b.wa.. ;hajids; 'but .we rightly expect our Government to justly and fearlessly carry out the law. The matter which ;calls" for-my letter is—over,-and the memory of it will shortly pass, like other similar tragedies, into oblivion, and anything I canjsay cannot now in the slightest degree aTfect the fate~bF the 'tmfortunate criminal. But- it "has, Nevertheless, "been th"c"law " nation, barbaric, or civilised, since the beginning of history, that the murderer must pay the penalty of his. crime with ,lia\<CTH lif£ It" is curious" "hcPC a. domeStic" tragedy "of ."this .'Sbf.t.. , will "cause 'SCTjmSoS more sensation," .and excite so much." more interest titan a national calamity, involving, the. lives of hun.jdjSeife Many thousands of good men and "women throughout Auckland and other parts of the-Dominion have signed asking that the man who defollowed and murdered that poor old gnmdigger for the sole purpose 'of;,possessing himself of his hard-earned ■savings, should escape justice. Those signatures, however, represent a very .email proportion of the community, and ;it-is probab'ie there is not one out of ten of the adult population who would willing to sjgn Buch a petition. Counjsei for the criminal has stated that this ip: the first-occasion that a recommendation to mercy of a jury has not been given effect to. He is, however, in error in this assertion, as juries who ".Kaye no alternative tout to find a verdict tf guilty; often relieve tKeit cbneeJeric.esj aiid, -perhaps; sometimes satisfy of-their number by adding a recommendation to mercy. Even in the Great "Barrier nearly- "twenty -five years -ago - there wus a recommenda"tion fb ' mercy. I remember sitting in the Supreme Gonrt as a young fiolicdtor during .the closing stages of that ?fial, and fieaTing the sentence of death pronounced, and I can never, forget the worda of- the Judge, or the solemnity of the occasion. Addressing the prisoner, the Judge told them that they had sent •that-old man to'his last account '.wjthbilt 'o'ne_imoment?s warning or time ...for repentance, arid he .continued, "The jury have recommended you to. mercy, and that recommendation will be duly for"■wafded to the Governor, but I can hold out no hope" to you" that it "will be ected Jnpoiir: For" "Since "the day when the Vprd-svxia spoken, 'Whoso sbeddeth,man's ■blbcd by man" shall hie blood hesheij,' no .moire cowardly or more deliberate murder his been planned or perpetrated. Frdm .the .earth where it wrts spilt the .TQice. of ttett-oid man's blood cries aloud WtQ_heay.en."- It_.seem9 to nic that "tsiere""is iur-the present ease clearer evidence of deliberate premeditation than "e^e'iP^n -the Great TJaLrrier case. Now, as mosit good people, including "the "who -were opposedto the carried" but, would have been -energetic -under- -any other* cfrenmstances in "quoting Scripture, and inculcating" obedience to its injunctions, 1 will ask them if they have for•gbtteri, "Moreover ye shall take no eatisfactipn for the life of a murderer, is--guilty -of aeaih, fjut -he shall Bural.y^be._put L .to.'.'death, ipr -the...land panifot' be "cTeansedTbf "th"a"t~" is -fihed- therein but by. the blood of him ■ J.hat,_shed iL". .Over, tae.igraye.of the .Ittitiyaerer "We. can'say,- "Requiescat■■ iti "i>f@&" Tjttfc. for "the sake civdisation we-nittst alsos'ay "Fiat, jus.'tjtia TiiaH; coelum." The executive have a hard-and difficult task in receiv-■ing-a-na-considering; fee petitions arid ielegrsras forwarded -tliemj- and carefully e'sAziihimg the whole of the evidence in (their, cbnsciftivtious. endeayoux to discover BOmefKing iTiit coiild by any possibility-show.a shadow of ground for altering^-"tbe" sentence, "of the Snpreme . After an exhaustive esaniina-twH-JEt&ndingJoyer .the whole, day tliey ■ found nothing" that , could enable them to .adyise'the mitigitibn" of the extreme penalty of the law, and they were strbng iadiiced to entertain Smy , ...considerations.. ./ 'The of fhe law-abiding'poTtibn. _of the community are due to the Executive for steadfastly refusing to be influenced by the pressure and-jetitions and telegrams of sentimentalists,, and for cbnscientiousJy_?ilrxSng -O-iit. the law" of the country, ,iuad of-God.—l am, . " - : 'eEo. k :: JOBa?OT6if. :