Hanging Of Ryan Caused Controversy In Victoria

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31290, 9 February 1967, Page 6

Hanging Of Ryan Caused Controversy In Victoria

(Special CrspSt. N.Z.P.A.) ] SYDNEY, Feb. 7. ] Victoria’s convicted i murderer, 41-year-old j Ronald Edward Ryan, ] has been hanged after i one of the most bitter capital-punish- ; ment controversies . waged in Australia for i many years. Ryan went to the gallows— : the Mme beam was used to :

hang the notorious bushJtaffer, Ned Kelly, in 1890— iff Melbourne’s Pentridge gaol, at 8 a.m. last Friday. He died with what the prison’s Roman Catholic chaplain, the Rev. John Brosnan, described as '‘dignity.” The crime for which he was hanged was the murder of a wardgr, George Hodson, who was shot dead during a gaolbreak by Ryan and another man, <n November 19, 1965. An went of great international importance, let alone national interest, could

not have had more columns devoted to it by newspapers throughout the Commonwealth, especially those in Victoria and New South Wales.

In their news pages and through strongly worded editorials, supported by some rather stark cartooning, they have, generally speaking, denounced the hanging. Several have called it barbaric.

Some have queried Ryan’s guilt and said there was still a doubt about whether it was he who shot Hodson, although this was not considered so by the jury which found Ryan guilty.

Refused To Be Swayed But all have been critical of the unbending attitude adopted by Victoria’s Premier, Sir Henry Bolte, on the question of capital punishment He refused to be swayed against Ryan’s hanging or, in any way, to support any, reprieve for him.

Typical of newspaper comment is the following quotation from an editorial of Sydney’s “Daily Mirror,” one of the city’s two afternoon dailies: ”... Let this be the last execution. Let the States remove the provision for capital ' punishment from their statute * books. Let no man hang in Australia ever again.” And from outside the newspaper sphere have come widespread protests from the public, the churches have had a say, and politician* have voiced their opposition. The Vatican Qty was asked—but declined—to intervene on Ryan's behalf after he had rejoined the church within hours of his death. The Queen, too, was vainly asked to exercise her Royal prerogative, and so it went on. Those in the community who were endeavouring to gain a reprieve for Ryan were not condoning the crime for which he had been found guilty, but trying to bring . about the aboltion of hanging. So heated had the situation become in Melbourne, in the period leading up to Ryan’s ■ death-walk to the gallows, [khat on tiie day and night before It happened 87 people, ' including a Labour member . oi Parliament, were arrested ( by police after d'emonstra--1 tiins outside Pentridge. A Most of the offenders were Wrged with assault or offen--1 KV« behaviour, and in the . jculfles which occurred seve-

ral policemen suffered injuries.

Ryan lived in the shadow of the gallows from March 30, 1966, when he was convicted of Hodson’s murder and sentenced to death.

Legal processes then fob lowed until on December 12 the Victorian Executive Council set January 9 as the execution date, but cancelled it on January 4 pending an appeal to the Privy Council. When thia appeal was uib successful the hanging was fixed for January 31. It looked as though that date was definite until, with only nine hours to go, the trial judge, Mr Justice Starke, granted a 48-hour reprieve to enable Ryan's legal advisers to produce what they said would be new evidence.

The next day it was quickly discovered the witness, who was to be the "lifesaver,” was not able to provide the required testimony. Subsequently, the man concerned—a former convict—was charged with perjury. The last hope of any further reprieve having failed, the State Cabinet decided Ryan should die at 8 a.m. last Friday, and now the hanging is over there is an overwhelming feeling of shock among Victorians. Many people who did not feel particularly strongly over the issue had, nevertheless, hoped there would be yet another last-minute reprieve, and that Ryan would escape banging. Not by any means, however, is public opinion in Victoria entirely against what happened. It is felt in such quarters there is a place for capital punishment, but that it should be carried out on the majority of convicted killers, and not the chosen few. Ail that has happened oves Ryan could recur within the next few weeks, in which time the Victorian Executive Council has to consider death sentences imposed by the courts on three men and a woman. Whatever its decision shout these sentences, the council and the Bolte Government will face further criticism for its actions.

After Ryan had died, Sir Henry Bolte Mid: “My Gov* ernment will continue to review each case of capital punishment on its merits.”