IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE
SENTENCE ON A YOUTH. (IT TELEGRAPH— PRESS 4SSOCHTION.I TIMARU, This Day. John Daintry Campbell Birch, aged sixteen years, who pleaded guilty at the Supreme Court yesterday to the attempted murder of James o'Coiinell r was sen. tenced to-day by Mr. Justice Denniston to imprisonment for life. His Honour delivered a lengthy address, stating the reasons for imposing the full sentence allowed by the law. "I do not see," he said, " why the fact of your failure to complete your purpose should place you' in a better position, and deprive the public of protection. You will be cared for, your health and disposition will be under observation, and it will be for the proper authorities to decide now, or in the future, whether you are a fit subject for reformatory treatment, whether after adolescence a remission of your sentence may be justified. I cannot anticipate the time, if ever, when such justification will occur. This course has been lately adopted in the case of a boy younger than you, who was convicted of 6exual crimes which made his liberty dangerous to girls. I feel bound to sentence you to the heaviest punishment the law allows, leaving your future in the hands of those who will have control of it."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19150203.2.117
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 28, 3 February 1915, Page 8
Word Count
211IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 28, 3 February 1915, Page 8
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