CRIMINALS SHOULD BE GASSED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 23 January 1939, Page 8

CRIMINALS SHOULD BE GASSED

PUNISHMENT NO GOOD j TOO MUCH LENIENCY (By Air Mail—(Special Correnpoudeut! LONDON, 24th December, j Brutal punishment for brutal crimes j was advocated this week by Dr. H. M. Stephenson, a Dorset doctor, in a speech jul Dorchester. He wauled lethal chambers : attached to every Court bo that persons [ found guilty of continuous criminal hab- : its or sex crimes could he executed at once. Dr. Stephenson, who was debating that “the leniency with which crime is treated nowadays is becoming a menace to law-abiding citizens’’ attacked "peo- . pie who think that soppiness with a criminal pays.’’ He spoke of the hopelessly depraved class of criminal, one of whom lie knew has spent 13 years in prison, though he was only 23. He was last sent to gaol for 18 mouths. “You might as well give a tiger 18 months and expect it to cease to be a tiger when it came out,” said the doctor. "To deal with such cases by prison is wrong.” For crimes of violence there should be flogging which was cruel but effective.

Dr. Stephenson said he would not punish recidivists and sex perverts. He would put them in a lethal chamber. That was the only sane tiling to do. The lethal chamber was immeasurably kinder to such people than to shut then, up in gaol Uk life. If he had his way, there would !*c a lethal chamber attached to every assize court. When the oxygen in a chamber was exhausted without increasing the carbon dioxide, the person inside just dropped to the floor. He would have prisoners just sitting in the lethal cnambers, and if they were found guilty of such crimes of violence as he indicated, the oxygen in the chamber would be exhausted without their being told the verdict. Dr. .Stephenson's proposition deploring “leniency” with criminals was carried by a single vote.