Capital Punishment And The Parties

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 12

Capital Punishment And The Parties

The difference between the Labour and National Parties on the penalty for murder is a grave flaw in the administration of justice in New Zealand. In 1941 the first Labour Government abolished the death sentence for tnurder. In 1950 the National Party Government restored capital punishment. Since then it has been mandatory on the Courts to pass sentence of death on persons convicted of murder; blit under the second Labour Government all death sentences have been commuted. Now the Labour Government has written its policy on the death penalty into the Crimes Bill, which was introduced in Parliament on Tuesday. If it becomes the Government at the end of the year—or when it does become the Government—the National Party will be able to change the law to suit its own policy. Chopping and changing the penalty for the most serious crime in the criminal calendar is frivolity to which civilised people must be unhappy to be parties. When the Crimes Bill - was introduced National Party spokesmen tried to reach common ground with the Labour Party, suggesting retention ->f the death penalty for only the . most serious murder cases. Mr ' Nash, though unwilling to discuss this proposal “ outside "“the House” as the National Party proposed, said he would do so when the Crimes Bill was -. debated. However, he showed '“what his attitude would be

when he said he was ’" opposed “to killing ’’—illogical though that makes the retention of the death penalty for treason in the Crimes Bill. Yet Mr Nash should be as anxious as the National Party to end the present unsatisfactory clash of opinion.

Compromise on this issue will not be easy to achieve, although something of the kind is now in force in England. A National Party speaker said that both major parties in the British House of Commons wanted the death penalty retained for some types of murder; this, in fact, is the shape of the law in Britain now. But if the National Party relies on what political parties in Britain have done it should also consider what they were advised to do. A Royal Commission sat from 1949 to 1953, made inquiries all over the world, and took evidence from dozens of witnesses. On the question that is the basis of the National Party’s proposals the Royal Commission said this: We began our inquiry with the determination to make every effort to see whether we could succeed where so many have failed and discover some effective method of classifying murders so as to confine the death penalty to the more heinous. Where degrees of murder have been introduced, they have undoubtedly resulted in limiting the application of capital punishment and for this reason they have commenced themselves to public opinion, but in our view their advantages are far outweighed by the theoretical and practical objections which we have described. We must conclude with regret that the object of our quest is chimerical and that it must be abandoned.