WOMEN AS JUDGES OF WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 258, 29 October 1921, Page 19

WOMEN AS JUDGES OF WOMEN.

women jurors were challenged by; counsel in a murder trial was explained •before the lord Chief Justice, Sir A. T. : Lawrence, and Mr. Justices 'Sankcy and firanson, in the 'Court of Criminal Appeal,' when 'Edith Mary Itoberts (21), a single woman, appealed against her conviction at -cicoster Assizes for murdering her baby directly after its birth. j iMr. Powers said the sentence of death' Sad been commuted to penal servitude for life, but he contended that the verdict j should have been one of manslaughter. The I girl kept her secret, even from her sister, i "With -whom she slept, until the I>nby ivas born, and then she placed a camisole in its mouth, and, wrapping it up in a skirt, hid it in a box under a mattress. J Mr. Powers said he objected to the fact' that the judge at the trial told the jury that lie (counsel) had challenged the women jurors because the prisoner would get more sympathy from men than women. "I did not ask for sympathy," said Mr. Powers; "all I wanted was an impartial trial. My feeling is that women are not always impartial to their sex." j The appeal was dismissed. i