HANGING OF WOMEN

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 143, 14 December 1922, Page 5

HANGING OF WOMEN

AN OLD ISSUE REVIVED

APPEAL FOR MRS. THOMPSON. (UNITED PUBSS ASSOCIATION COBTMOHT.I (AUSTRALIAN - ( NEW ZEALAND CABLB. ASSOCIATION.) ,'..,■• LONDON, 12th December. Counsel is preparing an appeal against the death' sentence passed on Mrs. Thompson, found guilty,- with the youth BywateTs,.in connection; with-.the Ilford murder charge. It: has .not bedn decided whether Bywatera will appeal,' but counsel is considering the desirability of a petition for a reprieve on the ground of prisoner's "youth. The present feeling of the L,aw Authorities and the Home Office is declared to be against a reprieve. -It is pointed out that younger 1 prisoners than Bywaters have been hanged, while jf Mrs. Thompson reprieved it will never be possible to execute a woman in future, however terrible her crime. TJie whole, question of capital punishment for. women is involved in Mrs. Thompson's fate. Mr. Justice Shearman has sentenced, two more women to death, creating a judicial record. The, jury strongly sjecommended both to mercy. Both were removed in a fainting condition.' The. first was condemned,for throwing a child from the Tower Bridge, and the , second. murdered a woman whom she alleged intrigued with her;husband. ';