CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 239, 8 October 1940, Page 6

CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS.

COMMITTED SENTENCED

(To the Editor.)

Yoor vigorous snb-leader on fU present Government's practice o£ etZ! muting all death eenteuoes win tl widely approved. The last instance of commutation in New Zealand can oalr be described as an outrage, a Brnyi State, if under responsible Government demands in such a case tho death oft£> murderer ae (a) the only adeqaatepou. iehment for his crime, (hj vindieatioa of the authority of the Sta:<>. ( o ) deternat to others, (d) satisfaction to tie nk.tive of the victims, [e> security from i repetition of the crime. \Vhat*<lo» tie Governor-General in Council do in tkk case? Order that murderer bearing a double brand of Cei* shall be kept warm, dry and well fw for the rest of his life "at Jbe expew of the community! What moredn» tic proof of the folly of tins prae? is required than the recent ft=ca«s of| condemned rourcerer from Mount Rdm gaol, after an aseault by the escape, that leaves a warder in "the shadow of death? What is to be the punkhmeot for successive murders of warders? bread and more water for each oSeaee* Why discriminate between the otfeid* wholesale armed killer and the foal limited killer? Should we put saltan the Germane' tails and keep them wane and fed for the rest of their lives, or destroy them with the same noncta ance they and all their tvpe the world over show toward their "own victims' fates ? The sentimentalism that tolerates with charity all crimes aniut other people, will, of course, rouse a> the anti-hangers in defence of && theory. To them I would say, ' Wouia you kill in self-defence?' , * if answer be "No!" probably the truti * not in them or they are of martyr ttaS and too much for me. If "Yβ;::" t&en I would say, "You have nominated the penalty for attempting to take Tour life; you cannot object to an equal penalty for the actual taking of life (murder) of possibly a person of much more innocence or value to the community than youn=elf." Tie Cartman reprieve should be remembered when tie present Government comes up for eentence before the people who for one brief day in every three years sit on the judgment seat. They may, of counse, get a life sentence, and ret tI«T may not! A. ST. CLAIR BROWN.