ANTI-HANGING BILL PASSED BY HOUSE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30803, 15 July 1965, Page 15

ANTI-HANGING BILL PASSED BY HOUSE

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, July 14. The end of the death penalty in Britain was in sight today after the House of Commons had given a 102-vote of approval to the antihanging Bill. Mr Sydney Silverman Labour sponsor of the Bill, said it would “rid England’s green and pleasant land from the shadow of the gallows.” The Bill, debated on a nonparty basis, now goes to the House of Lords. Because of the strong Conservative supnort shown for the Bill in the Commons, the Lords are expected to approve it and it should become law before the present Parliamentary session ends in August. In its present form the Bill will abolish the death penalty for murder for a trial five-year period, an amendment added against Mr Silverman’s wishes. Mr Silverman said that he hoped the time limit would be deleted by the House of Lords. The seven-month struggle to get the Bill through the Commons ended early today, when it was carried by 200 votes to 98.

Opposition continued to the end and Sir John Hobson, the Attorney-General in the last Conservative Government, said it was a Bill the country did not want. He said many more criminals would carry guns and use them. He described Mr Silverman as “a misguided crusader, suffering from selfinduced myopia." Earlier in last night’s sitting the Commons decided by a 121 majority that the new penalty for murder would be life Imprisonment.