Smiling Murder

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 99, 30 April 1935, Page 3

Smiling Murder

SCENE IN OLD BAILY TRIAL OVER IN FEW MINUTES MAN LAUGHS AT BLACK CAP. One of the shortest murder trials on record took place at tho Old Baily, London, last month, when a few minutes after ho had entered tho dock and pleaded guilty, a man was sentenced to death. Ho laughed at the death sentence. The man was James Robert Vent, aged 37, an unemployed miner, who was charged with tho murder of Clementine Balehin, aged 49, at Camberwell, on January 12. Vent, who had had his shirt open at the neck, and tousled hair, camo into the dock with amused smile on his face, and when called upon to plead, he replied in a loud voice, “Guilty.” Mr. Justice Talbot, after conferring with the Clerk of the Court, asked Mr. Anthony Hawke to. seo Vent and make sure he understood his plea. Vent, who had stood, hands in pockets waiting unconcernedly with tho warders, then went to the cells, whero Mr. Hawke saw him. On his return Mr. Justice Talbot called Dr. Grierson, medical officer of Brixton Prison, who had had Vent tinder observation. He expressed tho view that Vent was sane. Vent was then called upon to plead, and again ho answered “Guilty” in a loud voice. He made no reply when asked if he had anything to say, and the black cap was at once placed on the Judge’s head. Vent smiled more broadly. “I am told,” said Mr. Justice Talbot, ‘‘by the doctor that you are capable of understanding' what it means to plead guilty or not guilty. You have pleaded guilty to a charge of murder, and there is only ono sentence which the law allows. “You and others -who hear me will understand this. When you go from hero your condition of mind and every other fact in the case will be most carefully weighed, and it will bo for those who have that responsibility to decide whether you are to suffer the sentence I am now about to pronounce upon you; I havo no choieo in tho matter.” Mr Justice Talbot then passed sentence of death. Vent listened intently, smiled again, and shrugged his shoulders. Ho chatted laughingly to tho warders as he turned and left the dock.

Usually Judges Tefuso to accept a plea of guilty in murder charges and order the case to bo tried. In 1925 Mr. Justice Wright, at tho Manchester Assizes, accepted tho plea of guilty from a young man named Samuel Johnson charged with tho murder of a woman at Stretford, and the trial was over in very little more than four minutes. Johnson was hanged.

Another ease after that occurred at the Old Baily before Mr. Justice Branson. A Homerton warehouse packer, James Frederick Straton, who was accused of murdering his sweetheart in a Tailway train persisted in his plea of guilty in spite of the Judge’s sending him back for a further consultation with his counsel, and the death sentence was passed in six minutes without any opening statement or evidence being tendered. This case was remarkable in that all the stages of the criminal proceedings up to tho passing of sentence were completed within 17 days of tho crime.

Five minutes was tho duration of tho trial of Joseph Reginald Victor Clark, 21, a wireless operator, who pleaded guilty at tho Liverpool Assizes to the murder of Mrs. Alico Fontaine.- He appealed on tho grounds that no evidence was given against him except his own confession, which he wished to withdraw, Tho appeal was dismissed and a reprieve was refused.