U.K. Campaign Against Hanging Launched

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29383, 9 December 1960, Page 17

U.K. Campaign Against Hanging Launched

LONDON, December 8. A cousin of the Queen, the Earl of Harewood, is to lead a new campaign against hanging. The campaign was launched yesterday on the eve of a new House of Commons storm about capital punishment.

The Home Secretary (Mr R. A. Butler) reprieved 20-year-old John Rogers on Tuesday, less than a month after refusing a reprieve for 18-year-old “Flossie” Forsyth and Norman Harris, aged 23. Conservative and Labour M.Ps want to force a new debate on the death penalty. They say the law is being “brought into disrepute” because of the widely differing decisions. Lord Harewood, who may raise the matter in the House of Lords, has been picked as chairman of the “Committee of Honour” organised by anti-hanging leaders. He will be assisted by one of Britain’s top barristers, Mr Gerald Gardiner, Q.C., and the publisher, Mr Victor Gollancz. The treasurer will be Lord Altrincham. ' Lord Harewood said last night: “We aim to prick the conscience of the nation and the Government. We are not softies. We stand for a principle, and we think the nation is swinging towards that view.” - Labour M.P.S are now making a bid to have the minimum age for execution raised from 18 to 21. Questions are expected in the House of Commons. Labour M.P.S will probably ask Mr Butler why it was possible to recommend mercy in the Rogers case

but not in that of Forsyth and Harris. - Rogers shot a taxi-driver. The other two kicked a man to death in an attempted robbery. Government supporters are also reported to be uneasy about the way Britain’s homicide law is operating. It prescribes capital punishment for some types of murder and imprisonment for others. Lord Harewood said last night: “It is not true that we feel more for murderers than for their victims. But we don’t believe that two wrongs make a right. “Has capital punishment ever proved the big deterrent? Has it stopped bank raiders carrying out successful raids—armed with guns? “I hate the thought 'of hanging. I think the method of death is dreadful for a start.” British press comment on the matter today ran two to one in favour of retaining the death penalty. Only the “Guardian” favoured the abolition of capital punishment. ; The “Guardian” referred to the “futility and needlessness” of the death penalty in a civilised society. , The "Daily Express” said the public “believed that every coldblooded murderer should hang, and that if the present law is to be changed it should be made sterner, not more lenient.”