Right to Kill

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 189, 12 August 1936, Page 8

Right to Kill

LOVE THIEF SLAIN ''The man who steals the wife of another is : a Ishmael and every man’s hand ought to bo against him ; specially that of the wronged husband. If in his anger tiho husband forgets himself to the point of slaying the love thief, it is no murder.” This, in effect, was the unwritten law defined by counsel for the defence in -a murder trial at the Seine Assizes, Paris. A young artisau, strolling in the Bois de Vincennes, the Epping Forest of Paris, came on .his wife and her lover, Albert Gaston Pomet. walking arm-in-arm and exchanging tender glances under the trees. “What are you doing here?” asked the husand, Adrien Anglade. “You can see for yourself what we are doing,” retorted the wife. Tihat time the two men were content with an exchange of heated words. There were other meetings, however, and each time matters moved nearer to the climax. “I could seo they mocked me,” the husband told the judge, “and my blood boiled. I was not master of myself, so I whipped out my revolver. The Publie Prosecutor repudiated the idea that unwritten law ran in France for the benefit of 1 wronged husbands, and demanded a conviction carrying a severe penalty. The counsel for the defence asked the jury to put themselves in the position of his client and say how they would act before rendering their verdict. • After a brief consultation they found the accused not guilty,