FRENCH JURIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 December 1928, Page 5

FRENCH JURIES

WISH TO CONTROL SENTENCES

ANOTHER STRANGE VERDICT

(Times Cables.) (By Cable—Press Assn.—Copyright.)

(Recd. Dec. 6, 1.30 p.m.) PARIS, December 5.

Another strange verdict by a Seine' jury has increased public astonishment.

A grocer, accused of murdering a girl, pleaded drunkenness as his sole excuse. He was guilty on the clearest evidence, yet the jury’s verdict was not guilty. The Judge ■ perforce discharged the prisoner. . \ < The jury afterwards published this resolution: “For the second time in. « two days, a Seine jury finds itself faced with conscientious scruples. It desires to return a verdict of guilty but is unable to obtain a formal guarantee concerning the penalty, therefore , it expresses the opinion that the law should be reformed in order to give a jury power to define the consequences of its verdict.” The resolution occasioned a great public outcry. It is evidence that a crisis is arising in French criminal procedure, when juries claim the right to determine the sentences.

DEATH PENALTY OPPOSED

LONDON, December 5. In the Commons, Commander Ken- . worthy, introducing a bill, substituting

life imprisonment for the : death penalty, said it was supported by mem* bers of all Parties. There was always a chance of a mistake in a murder trial. He instanced Oscar Slater, and said it was better that a hundred guilty persons should escape the. gallows, than one innocent be judicially murdered. The bill was read a first time by 119 votes to 8.