DEATH PENALTY.

Grey River Argus, 7 December 1928, Page 5

DEATH PENALTY.

GROWING OPPOSITION. - r'cis. » 1French Jury’s Demand. TO IMPOSE SENTENCE. (Australia.) & N.Z. Cable Assn). PARIS. December D. Another strange verdict by a Seine jury has increased public astonish incut. A grocer, accused of murdering h ‘gil'l, pleaded drunkeiiness as his sob 'excuse. Ho was guilty on the clearest jevidenco, yet the jury’s verdict wa? not guilty. The Judge perforce dis charged the prisoner. The jury afterwards published this resolution: “For'tli’e second time in Jwo days, a Seine jury finds itself faced with conscientious scruples. It desire-- to return a verdict of guilty but is unable to obtain a formal guarantee concerning the penalty, there fore it expresses the opinion that the law should be reformed in order to give a jury power to define the con sequences of its verdict.” The resolution occasioned a great public outcry. It is Evidence that t crisis is arising in French criminal procedure, when juries claim the right to determine the sentences. ABOLITION OF CAPITAL PUNISH MENT. BILL BEFORE COMMONS. LONDON, December 5. Tn the Commons, Commander Kenworthy, introducing a Bill, substitut ing imprisonment for the death penal ity. said it was supported by members of all Parties. There was always a chance of a mistake in a murder trial. He instanced Oscar Slater, and said lit was- better that a hundred guilty persons should escape fhe gallows, than one innocent be judicially murdered. The Bill was read a first time by 119 votes to 8.