DEATH SENTENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21258, 11 August 1932, Page 10

DEATH SENTENCE

MURDER OF A GIRL LIVERMORE FOUND GUILTY MERCY RECOMMENDED YOUTH S MENTAL STATE STRONG PLEA BY JURY [BY TELEG&Arn—T7IERS association] WELLINGTON, Wednesday A verdict of guilty with a strong recommendation to mercy on account of his youth and mental weakness was returned by tho jury late this afternoon in the case of Horace Frank Livermoro, labourer, aged 20, who was charged with the murder of Vera Margaret- Forstor, aged 4J, years, nt Upper Hutt, last April. The sentence of death was passed by Mr. Justice Reed. When the trial was resumed in the Supreme Court this morning counsel for prisoner addressed tho jury. Ho said that if tho youth actually was tho slayer of tho girl, as ho said ho was, there wns one circumstance that appeared to counsel as very peculiar. It was that when tho girl's body was found at ten o'clock at night it was still warm. On tho assumption that prisoner killed the girl, counsel asked the jury to consider whether there could be any doubt that the boy, who believed the child to be better off dead, and discussed the matter with the child's parents, was insane in every senso of tho word. Submissions By Crown The Crown Prosecutor said that if Livermoro murdered tho girl, of which there was no doubt, the question was whether he was at the time suffering from a mental disease of such a kind that ho realised neither the quality of the act nor whether it was right or wrong. On tho question of sanity tho Crown Prosecutor reminded the jury that every person was presumed to be sane until the contrary was proved, nnd tho onus was on the defence to satisfy the jury that Livermoro was suffering from a mental disease. Tho Crown Prosecutor quoted extensively from a judgment of a former Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, and acquainted the jury with the legal definition of insanity. Medical witnesses for the defence, he continued, had said that Livermoro was suffering from dementia praecox or schizophreina, which meant really early insanity or premature insanity. Medical witnesses for the Crown, however, said that tfjo boy was not suffering the disease, but that his actions were due to exaggeration of his temperament which was contributed to no doubt by heredity, and were the outcome of adolescent instability. There was the strongest possible evidence according to the boy's own account of the affair that he had known at the time what he was doing. The facts that the prisoner had hidden the bar a fortnight beforehand, that he had led the girl away and that having murdered her he should throw her down a bank pointed in only one direction —that ho had fully known at the time what he was doing, the Crown Prosecutor submitted. Livermore's subsequent behaviour was not that of one suffering from dementia praecox. His Honor's Address His Honor said the defence quite properly had said the Crown must show on tho evidence that accused actually was tho person who killed tho child. His Honor discussed matters bearing on the duty of the jury when considering the question of sanity. The position was, he said, that if tho jury found Livormore guilty of murder and sane at tho time ho committed tho act it became His Honor's duty to sentence him to the oxtreme penalty. If they found him guilty of murder with the qualification that ho was insane, then formally the death sentence would havo to bo pronounced, but then it became a question for the Governor-General in Council, it was put before him with the recommendations of tho jury. A great divergence between the evidence of tho doctors, said His Honor, was that the doctors for the defence set up that definite mental disease existed, whereas doctors from tlie mental hospital said that it did not exist. The Crown medical witne. ■es said that accused was a youth win had been in very unfortunate circumstances. Ho had not had much of a chance, lfis mother had died early and his father was dead also. He had been in a home. Right through ho did not seem to have had much of a chance. Three Verdicts Open The Crown witnesses said the trouble with Livermoro was that he had a precocious form of what was referred to as instability, that had probably been increased by the fact that lie had had nianv things to contend with in early life. All that the jury had to consider, said His Honor, was whether tho evidence that was called for tho defence showed that accused did not understand tho quality of tho act and did not know what it was. If they decided he did, they had 110 option other "than to return a verdict of guilty. Tho possiblo verdicts open were three —not guilty, guilty but insano (or not guilty 011 tho ground of insanity), and guilty. Tho jury retired at 3.50 p.m. and returned at 5.22 p.m. with a verdict of guilty with a strong recommendation to mercy in view of his youth and mental weakness. Asked if he had anything to say Livermoro said in a firm voico, "I have nothing to say." His Honor donnod the black cap and pronounced the death sentence. Beyond a slight frown, which had often been noticcablo during the trial, Livermoro listened to tho sentence unmoved. He then turned and disappeared from tho dock. Tho jury was excused from further lury service fur 11 period of two years.