ALLEGED INJUSTICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19792, 12 November 1927, Page 11

ALLEGED INJUSTICE.

PRISONER'S SENTENCE.

GLASGOW MURDER CASE.

RELEASE AFTER 18 YEARS.

AGITATION IN ENGLAND;

By Telegraph.—Preßs Association—Copyright. A. and N.Z.-Sun. LONDON, Nov. 10. The Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, Major Walter JEllictt, stated in the House of Commons that he felt he would be justified in releasing on license as soon as. arrangements could be made the man, Oscar Slater, who was convicted of the murder of Miss Gilchrist at Glasgow. He was sentenced to imprisonment for life and has now served 18j years. A section of the British press and many prominent men have long sought the release of Slater. The German Foreign Office points out that it cannot take up the man's case until jse applies for repatriation. He forfeited bis German citizenship by going to live in Scotland in order to avoid conscription. "Slater's release is only the beginning of things," says Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who has fought ceaselessly for the prisoner's vindication. • "Slater -is how an old and broken man, and no effort must be spared to ensure that his Bufferings are productive of some good. This is the greatest police scandal of modern times. It is evident that the judicial authorities made the gravest of mistakes. Anyone who happened to be walking the streets of Glasgow at the same-time as Slater might have been found guilty."

Sir Arthur js now framing a petition to Parliament asking for a full inquiry into Slater's arrtst:arid' trial, and urging that he be compensated. The agitation for Slater's release is the result of a message the prisoner sent Sir Arthur. This was written on a piece of paper and hidden in a hollow tooth of another: prisoner when he was discharged from-Peterhead, gaol in 1925.

At the time of the Sacco-Vanzetti sensation in Boston considerable discussion took place in England concerning the fate of Oscar Slater. The Nation said:— ■' Slater was an alien, a German Jew, a man with few friends in' this country, none in a position-to help him. Nor was there anything in the alleged crime—the battering to death -of a defenceless old lady, presumably for the. purpose of robbery —calculated to arouse sentimental interest on the man's behalf. Nevertheless, so strong was the impression that his guilt had not been proved that reasoned representations were made to the Scottish Secretary on his behalf —there was no Court of Criminal Appeal. . As a result Slater's sentence was altered to penal servitude for life (he was only 37 at, that time). In England such a sentence is i) practice reduced to a limited number of years—we believe 15. But in Scotland no such practice is recognised, and in spite of repeated attempts to have the case reconsidered, Slater is: still in prison at the end of 18 years. In the light of this story, what right have we to throw stones at Massachusetts? " On Sacco, there was at .least found a revolver from which the shots might haveheen fired, whereas against Slater the police had to rely on a small iack hammer, with no trace of bloodstains, as the weapon. If appeals in Massachusetts have to come before the Judge who pre sided at the trial," in Scotland there is no possibility of appeal at all. And, finally if there has been in Massachusetts an appallinc official stubbornness against granting either a pardon or a thorough public investigation, which might admit or reveal grave scandals jn the police svstem the stubbornness has been no less appalling here." London Truth said Slater was condemned on a majority vote of nine to six by the Scottish jury, upon evidence which from beginning to end was faulty arid inconclusive.