POWELKA'S DOOM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 840, 11 June 1910, Page 10

POWELKA'S DOOM.

Sir, —Most people this morning will feel stunned and shocked by the terrible severity of the sentence on Powelka. His Honour is a man of wellknown uprightness and humanity, and as such his decisions must bo respected. But what could have led him to doom so young an offender to such a sentence of despair? Tlio "man in the street" had expected a sentence of seven to ten years, which would seem to bo ample as a deterrent to others, and to servo as a moans to reform tlio convict. I would venture to point out that "escaping from lawful custody," though undoubtedly inconvenient to the custodian, is a rather venial offence. For I doubt whether even a member of the Bench, if incarcerated (wrongfully, of course), would resist tho temptation of regaining his freedom through a too earolessly-guarded door. And, having escaped, with the hue and cry in his,

ears, and tho panic-stricken citizens, armed to the teeth, closo at his heels, would it not bo a mild form of burglary which displayed itself in tho lilchinj; of sardines, tinned meats, sausages, steaks, and overcoat, to satisfy the immediate pangs of hunger and shield himself from tho night mists? For arson and tho former burglaries he, of course, richly deserved a severe sentence, but one is at a loss to discover the fitness of so cruel a doom as that of penal servitude for 21 years. The charges on which l'owelk.i was acquitted cannot, of course, ho weighed against him. If it were permissible for the Judge, in spite of acquittal by the jury, to sentence a prisoner indirectly by increasing the severity of the sentence for quite another offence, there would bo an end to the whblo safeguards and privileges which we are supposed to possess in the process of trial by jury. In effect it would amount to this: that the Judge could declare, a prisoner guilty, and punish him, whom a jury had declared to be innocent. We have not como to this yet, and I hope we never shall. On the ground, too, of public policy, ■it seems that cruelly severe sentences aro inadvisable. For they shock the sentiment of humanity, and lead to reaction and sympathy with the criminal, who is thus made to pose as a persecuted one. Thus comes it that jxiries, fearing savage sentences, refuse to convict, and so tho right ends of justice aru defeated.—l am, etc., AGOKAIOS. June 8.