CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 184, 6 August 1934, Page 6

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

Any person who is not a barbarian at heart knows that hanging is a shocking and degrading exhibition of brute instincts, prefaced by the long-drawn-out torture of the ' condemned man during , that infamous period between his .sentence and his execution. The long climb to the gallows is another example of prolonged torture. That relic of the Dark Ages, hanging, is not an instantaneous death. Cases have been known where the tortured man has struggled for upwards of- half an hour before death supervenes. The coroner's report in the recent hanging, "that the cause of death was asphyxiation" proves this. A . person cannot die instantly from asphyxiation. Also, in my opinion, the reading of the burial service for and in the hearing of a man who is not yet dead is a scandal. Surely afterwards is the time for this. The average person committing murder does so in a momentary uncontrollable burst of passion. Hβ is, in fact, probably a "first offender" in crime of auv description, and a worthy citizen in every other respect. His hanging will not right the first wrong. However, the general public are too apathetic to have this revolting state of affairs remedied, and it seems that only in the event of an innocent man being hanged will'this uncivilised custom be abolished. HERBERT W. TAYLOR.