Saw 90 Men Executed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31112, 15 July 1966, Page 3

Saw 90 Men Executed

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 14. A clergyman who has seen more than 90 men face death in the gas chamber arrived in Auckland today in the liner Monterey. He is the Rev. B. Eshe*man, aged 50. For 15 years he was chaplain in the San Quentin State prison, California. Mr Eshelman, of the United Church of Christ, was chaplain to Caryl Chessman, who was executed in, May, 1960, after 11 years in death row. He said he was one of the many fighting to have the death penalty abolished in California. ‘There are 60 men awaiting execution in San Quentin,” he said. “One of them has been

waiting for nine years. There has not been an execution there for three and a half years.” This was because the courts had made a new interpretation of the law. Most of the 90 men executed in San Quentin would still be alive under this interpretation—including Chessman. Mr Eshelman said Chessman was a dynamic personality while he was in prison. Chessman showed the greatest understanding of prisoners and the way they thought. His death was a waste. Mr Eshelman has written a book on his experiences as chaplain In San Quentin and Alcatraz, the former prison in San Francisco Bay. He returned to Alcatraz recently for the marriage of the daughter of the caretaker on the now-deserted island. Mr Eshelman believes the prison system should be remodelled.

•The criminal is a victim, himself, even before he commits the crime,” he said. “Most of the inmates at San Quentin come from broken homes or poor emotional conditions. “Prisons should be a hospital where criminals can have intensive treatment—not just a place where they are locked away from society. “And the death penalty is nothing more than a modern counterpart to ancient rituals of human sacrifice as atonement.” Mr Eshelman wanted to be a lawyer but went to a theological college instead and found a far more profound relationship with prisoners. They were no different from people on the street. They were just neurotic people who needed help. He hopes to visit some North Island prisons and detention centres during his two-day stay.