TWO DEATH SENTENCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17650, 10 December 1920, Page 8

TWO DEATH SENTENCES.

PASSED ON SAME MAN, ' UNIQUE SYDNEY TRIAL. September 1, sentenced to death, i , " October 29, new trial granted. /November 3, sentenced to:death.'" To be sentenced to, death twee in his engagement' with' the ( law was the experience .of James Stewart, aged 30, an engineer,- 1 and looking for a parallel of this case one would find ■ probably : only on# previous instance in the annals of our courts, says a Sydney paper. t The second trial of Stewart came to an i end- before Mr. Acting-Justice James at . the Sydney Central' Criminal Court-on November 30. The prisoner was charged with a capital offence on his niece, aged 17, and the jury, which . retired at 2.40, returned to : court t at 4.23 for. the; purpose of hearing the girl's evidonco re-read and for the purpose of asking , her • further questions. Its verdict of guilty was announced at 5,35, and a recommendation of mercy was added. ' -The prisoner, on'whom sentence of death was passed, protested his innocence before leaving .• the ■' dock. :He appeared to have resigned himself to the worst. • i ' Officials of the Crown Law Department stated that - only one 'previous instanco could bo recalled in New South Wales of a man being twico sentenced to death. This man' had been found guilty of having hanged his wife, but was granted a new trial by the Court' of Criminal Appeals, ; A ' search of the records of the English 'courts would,' disclose that a double death ' sentence for,, the one' man was a unique happening for any country. : Stewart's first conviction was set aside by the Court of : Criminal Appeal, 1 on the ground that certain evidence given by the girl's mother of, a complaint made to her. by the girl was not altogether free and ' voluntary, 'but:was induced by.a leading 1 question put to the girl by the mother. ■ v' ' -