"MERCY KILLING”

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 May 1942, Page 2

"MERCY KILLING”

IMBECILE SON CHLOROFORMED

NEW YORK, January 7.

A hospital lift attendant, Louis Repouille, aged 39, has been freed on a suspended sentence of five to ten years for chloroforming his 13-year-old son, a blind imbecile “to put him out of his suffering.”

Judge Jonah J. Goldstein released him on probation after he had read a report by Irving W. Halpern, chief of the General Sessions Probation Department, compiled since Repouille’s conviction on December 9. Repouille killed the boy, Raymond, who had been an imbecile since birth, in their New York home. He had read of a similar killing in the Bronx, in. which the father was freed, but testified that his mind had “gone blank” as he saturated a cloth with ■he chloroform and laid it on the boy’s face. “This type of killing,” Judge Goldstein said, “has become associated in the public mind with the thought that, on certain occasions, it is an act of mercy. The words mercy killing have no sanction Jn our law. The fact that you were the father of an imbecile did not give you the right Lo kill him. There is grave danger that The leniency extended to you may encourage others to do what you did. I have taken into consideration that, no matter what punishment I might impose, you will have the burden of remembering for the rest of your life that you killed your own child.”

Judge Goldstein told Repouille “many factors have entered into my decision.” Appeals for leniency had been made by the jurors and other citizens. The judge remarked that he had taken into account that Repouille never before had run counter to the law and always had provided for his family, and said: “To send you to prison would greatly affect the lives of your children, who need vour support and guidance.” He ordered Repouille to report regularly for probationary supervision.