REPRIEVE GRANTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19963, 4 June 1928, Page 11

REPRIEVE GRANTED.

JTORGROVE NOT TO DIE. imprisonment for life. * CONDITIONS JUSTIFY MERCY." EXECUTIVE COUNCIL'S DECISION. The sentence of death passed upon Alan George Norgrove on May 15 for the murder of his sister-in-law, Ernestina Mary Norgrove. at New Lynn on March 7, was commuted to imprisonment for life at a meeting of the Executive Council held on Saturday morning at Government House. In a statement issued after the meeting ty the Prime Minister it was stated:— "The conditions ascertained are such as are generally accepted as sufficient to justify the exercise of the prerogative of mercy." All members of Cabinet had considered the case in Wellington a few days previously. The Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, presided over the meeting of the Executive Council on Saturday, there beinc also present the Prime Minister, Jlr. Coates, and Sir Francis Bell, Leader of the Legislative Council. The deliberations extended over nearly an hour. The decision was announced immediately after the meeting in the following statement issued by the Prime Minister:— . Special Examination and Report. "The question as to whether Norgrove ■ tvus sane within the legal definition of that term was decided by the jury at the trial, and that question was. not considered by the Executive Council. The function of the Executive Council was to consider whether there were any facts or circumstances relating to the personal or family history of the prisoner which should be considered by the Executive Council, to whom the law remits the question whether the death penalty should be inflicted. Acting on the advice of the Judge who tried the case, the Government appointed Dr. Gray, Inspector-Gen-eral of Mental Hospitals, and Dr. McKillop, superintendent of the Sunnyside Menta' Hospital at Christchureh, to make B snecial examination and report.

"It must be borne in mind that in the ease of murder the law allows only one penalty, but it is then the duty of the Executive Council, in reviewing the case, to take into consideration any circumstances which in cases other than that of murder might properly have been taken into consideration by the presiding Judge in passing sentence. History of the Prisoner. "The Government have given full consideration to the very careful report of the above-named doctors, in which, after exploring every source of information they reviewed (a) the facts and circumstances of the tragedy; (b) the abnormal early personal traits of the prisoner as disclosed in his school life and by the statements of another school-teacher who did not give evidence at the trial; (c) his physical ill-health, which left him largely uneccupied and subject to fits of depression ; (d) the existence of mental disease in his family, which, in the opinion of the doctors, affords substantial corroboration of the instability which has existed from his early years and which has throughout his life been reflected by exhibitions of temper and self-indiscipline; and (e) the motive for the crime, and the fact that it was unpremeditated and the result of a quarrel between himself and the murdered woman.

"The conditions ascertained are such as are generally accepted as sufficient to justify the exercise of the prerogative of mercy, and accordingly His Excellency-in-Council has decided to commute the sentence to that of imprisonment for life." Norgrove was promptly informed of the decision. It was received with the signs of relief to be expected from a man whose life, at least, has been spared, even if he faces a long term behind the walls of Mount Eden prison, where several men are already serving "life" sentences.