COERCION OF WIVES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3129, 7 August 1922, Page 7

COERCION OF WIVES.

The old and decrepit law which enables a married woman to escape punishment for a crime on a presumption of coercion by the husband is in a fair way to being abolished in Britain', where if has survived criticism and judicial condemnation for Jong years. The doctrine was based on an assumption of a wife’s complete subjection to the will of her husband, which is totally at variance with the facts of modern social life. The Daily Telegraph says that public opinion was immensely surprised, and, to a certain extent shocked, a few months ago, when this legal doctrine of the presumption of a wife’s irresponsibility for a crime committed by her in the presence of her husband opened the dock door to the woman in the Peel case and set her at liberty without further ado. Mr Justice Darling directed a verdict of acquittal, though he declared’ himself satisfied! that Mrs Peel was not acting under the coercion of the husband, but was acting for her own personal pecuniary benefit. The public was naturally astonished to see this easy way of release afforded to a woman who was betting on her own account, in her own code name, and possessed her own separate banking account. While under a legal obligation to direct the acquittal of Mrs Peel, Mr Justice Darling said it was absurd to say nowadays that a woman does not dare to contradict her > husband, or that, if a crime of any sort is prearranged between them, hersv, must be the submissive and his the compelling mind. , ~ The Lord Chancellor took the matter up promptly in the House of Lordb, with the result that a committee of eminent lawyers was set up, with Mr Justice Avory as Chairman. That comin it tec lost no time' in dealing with the subject, and its: report recommends that the whole doctrine' of coercion by the husband as a defence for the wife shall'be abolished, leaving the wife on the same footing as other people, and “free to establish any defence of that kind of compulsion (i.e., the fear of immediate death or grievous bodily harm) which affords a defence to any person.” The peculiarity of the law is seen in the fact that it is not of general application. The presumption of coercion has not applied to all crimes and to all occasions. The crimes of murder and treason have been treated as exceptions, and the presumption has only arisen when the crime has been committed in the husband’s presence. Yet in cases of real coercion the actual presence of the husband may count for little either way, and it is no less possible that a husband may coerce a wife to commit murder or treason as any other form of felony. Moreover, this doctrine of coercion has never been held to apply to any relation other than that of husband and wife, though surely the presumption is greater that a child would act under the coercion of a parent than a wife under the coercion of a husband.