IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE
JUDGE'S TRIBUTE TO PRISONER'S DEMEANOUR Pres* Association-—By Telegraph—Copyright CAPE TOWN, May 19. (Received Maiy 20, at 2 p.m.) Coetzee was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour, the judge remarking: “ You heroic demeanour throughout this terrible fortnight has been the wonder of the court.” The newspapers are already adversely commenting on the new Act. [A message received on Saturday stated that after a nine days’ trial Detective-sergeant J. H. Coetzee was found guilty on a charge of murdering Miss G. P. Opperman. The judge described the crime as, a. brutal and gruesome one. Coetzee was a prominent Transvaal footballer and played against the Wallabies. Ho was’intimate with Miss _ Opperman. She was motored some miles from Pretoria and was shot, the body being left on the railway line. The jury recommended mercy 7 oh the ground that Coetzee was driven to desperation by circumstances, having become engaged. -Two days ago an Act was promulgated giving judges discretion in passing the death sentence. The judge adjourned the court after the verdict was announced, stating that he‘would, consult his brethren and give his verdict to-morrow. In order to remove the prisoner’s dread the judge said he would not sentence him to death.]
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Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 22033, 20 May 1935, Page 8
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202IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE Evening Star, Issue 22033, 20 May 1935, Page 8
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