Bid To Replace Hanging

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32295, 13 May 1970, Page 17

Bid To Replace Hanging

fN Z Press Assn—Copyright)

LONDON, May 2. i Sir Richard Glyn, Conservative M.P. for Dorset North, will seek leave in the House of Commons tomorrow to bring in a bill providing for “a humane method of execution” instead of hanging or shooting for those offences still incurring capital punishment.

Sir Richard Glyn, who was! against the abolition of the death penalty for murder, has been concerned to remind Parliament that it still exists for certain offences in wartime. such as treason or mutiny, the “Daily Telegraph” has reported.

In his view, experiments by the Royal Air Force—in the course of research into the cause of “blackouts”— have shown that the most humane and painless method of execution would be “overventilation with nitrogen.” He said: “The whole question of capital punishment has got emotionally mixed up with the actual process of hanging. The report of the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment showed that if hanging was to be speedy and painless the services of I an expert executioner were essential. It is impossible to (guarantee that an expert executioner will be available in I future. “During World War II and soon afterward, we hanged far more people than was generally known at the time: 15 spies, two traitors, and 14 servicemen. “Thirty-five more were’

executed by firing squad, a method which the Royal Commission considered neither humane nor certain. “The experiments carried out at the R.A.F. institutes, which were described in a report published seven years ago, suggest that nitrogen breathing might be the answer. The subject was put into a confined space from which the supply of air was cut off, and replaced by pure nitrogen. In 17 to 20 seconds, unconsciousness supervened and death would have followed if the air supply had (not been restored. I “1 have spoken to one of the volunteers who submitted himself to this experiment. He assured me that there was no discomfort If the person were willing, it could be done while he was in a druginduced sleep,” Sir Richard Glyn said.