REPRIEVED MEN.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 19391, 17 August 1928, Page 11

REPRIEVED MEN.

"IRREVOCABLE PENALTY" HOME SECRETARY EXPLAINS. (UKITKB PBXSB ASBOCUTION-BT BMCTEIO raUBOB tPH—COPSBIOHT.) LONDON, August 15. In connexion with the murderers' reprieve, Sir W. Joynson-Hicks has authorised the following Homo Office statement:—"lt ia unusual for the Home Secretary to make any comment about capital cases, except an official notification of the decision, but as Parliament is not sitting, and the Brighton murder has excited public interest, the Home Secretary thinks that, it is desirable to amplify yesterday's official statement. It is not within the competence of the Home Secretary to retry the case. ' N "In July it was found that the prisoners were guilty, and the Court of Criminal Appeal upheld the conviction. The Home Secretary's proper and only function was to decide whether, when prisoners were convicted of murder and sentenced to the only penalty prescribed for this crime, there were any circumstances which would justify him in recommending the mitigation of the penalty, or whether the law should be allowed to take its course. The Home Secretary, in considering the question, was bound by no rules of procedure. "The Home Secretary thinks it desirable to point out that the recommendation for the exercise of the Royal prerogative does not reflect on the justice of the jury's verdict or the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal, but he felt that there was that element of doubt making it undesirable that there should be the infliction of the irrevocable penalty. There were many precedents for commuting death sentence in cases where the Home Secretary felt it unsafe to allow the irrevocable penalty to be inflicted."—Australian Press Association, United Service. '■■'■'"