Criminal Violence

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31162, 12 September 1966, Page 12

Criminal Violence

Sir, —To give “Lifesaver” food for thought, I refer him to a United Nations publication on capital punishment, wherein statistics clearly indicate that fewer capital crimes were committed after abolishing the death penalty. In June, 1877, ten men were hanged in Pennsylvania for murderous conspiracy. The “New York Herald” predicted the wholesome effect of the terrible lesson: “We may be certain that the pitiless severity of the law will deter the more wicked from anything like the imitation of these crimes.” The night after this large-scale execution, two of the witnesses at the trial of these men had been murdered, and within two weeks five of the prosecutors had met the same fate. English history shows that capital punishment had slight or no deterrent influence. Pocketnicking became so common in the crowds assembled to witness the public hanging of nick-pockets that hangings had to be made private. Yours etc.,

H. H. GARN. Oamaru. September 8, 1966. This correspondence is now closed. Ed., “The Press.”