MORE HUMANE END.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 130, 3 June 1937, Page 9

MORE HUMANE END.

HANGING ABOLISHED. CALIFCRNIAN DECISION. LETHAL GAS SUBSTITUTE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAX FRANCISCO. May 11. Several years ajo a deputation from Xcw Zealand arrived in San Francisco to investigate penology conditions 5n Western America, and anrihig the deputation was the late Mr. Mark Cohen, of Dunedin. at that time the editor of the Dunedin "Evening Star." Mr. Cohen and his party visited San Quentin Penitentiary, some 20 miles north-west of San Francisco, and inspected the world's largest penal institution, where some 6000 or more convicts were incarcerated. At that time the New Zealand commission made an exhaustive investigation of jthe humanitarian handling of the army of convicts domiciled at San Quentin. [especially the methods of hanging and jthe compulsory mounting of 13 steps by the condemned men on the way to the ■scaffold.

For years since the visit of the New Zealanders there has been an agitation in California to abolish capital punishment by means of the gallows, and substitute some more humane method of exacting recompense in the case of murder, and now by a .stroke of Governor Merriam's pen. hanging has ibeen abolished in the Golden State a- a imeans of capital punishment.

Le*hal gas, now tlie legal form of execution in six otlier American States, was substituted fur hanging when the [Governor signed the Holohan Bill, preIvioitelv passed liv both Houses of the j IC'alifo'rnia Legislature. The new law 'is not retroactive, and no person in thej 'State now under sentence of death will) ibe executed by gas.

Men Already Condemned. The seven condemned men in San Quentin, and the three in Folsom, aa well as others under death sentences but not yet removed to prison, will be hanged—unless appeals succeed or they are granted clemency. The Lethal Gas Act. introduced early in the session by Senator James B. Holohan, who was for a long time warden of Sau Quentin, will become effective 90 days after the adjournment of the present Legislature. Persons sentenced after that time will be executed in gas chambers to be constructed, at an estimated cost of 80(H) dollars at San Quentin and Folsom penitentiaries. Signing of the bill marked the most significant change in Californian penal procedure, and brought to a climax years of effort to have the State's form of execution changed- A similar measure was introduced in the 1033 legislature and passed, but was vetoed by the late Governor James Rolph. jun. " Abolition of hanging means the end of San Quentin's famed "thirteen steps" and the baby blue gallows, with two traps for double executions, from which many notorious criminals have dropped to their doom. Senator Holohan hailed the Governor's signing of the bill. '"Of course, 1 am greatly pleaded."' he said to an interviewer. "It is a decided in the right direction. Execution by ga~ will be entirely devoid of the element >>f ■ violence. One whiff of cyanide and is is all over. I believe, of cour-e. in capijtal punishment and voted again-* h I>--7i-]tion in the Legislature 11 \ear- ago. [Lethal gas. however. i- far nmre •humane."' Senator TTolnhan witiie-<*ed nl hanging", a- required by law, during his tenure as warden. j Warden ( <.nrt Smith, his successor at ■San Quentin. had no comment to make • : on the change, but expressed concern Jover the location of the gas chamber. 'l"While I'm in charge and have to take the last walk with the boys he said. ••I don't care to comment on how tncy L n J *aw one gas execution at t.irsoti Citv in Vevada. I would like t.i Knowwhere thev are going to put the chamber here—the space is pretty well (taken." i Xevada pioneered in the lethal iras executions, other State- t,, foll-.w !>eiivr [Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and Xorih iCarolina. . -