PLEA BY COMRADES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21347, 23 November 1932, Page 10

PLEA BY COMRADES

MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH

MERCY SOUGHT FOR JEPSON

A petition on behalf of Hubert Cedrie Jepson, who was sentenced to death at New Plymouth on November 16 for tie murder of his wife and two sons,, is being organised by the Timaru Keunion committee. Copies of the petition are being sent to ex-machine-gunners by Mr. L. M. Inglis, solicitor, of Timaru, who was a major in the New Zealand Machine-Gun Corps. > The petition describes in detail the war service of Jepson, who was with the expeditionary force overseas for four years. In March,sl9l7, he was wounded in action and after 10 months in hospital was promoted to sergeant while an instructor at the New Zealand Machine-Gun Depot at Grantham. He returned to service in France from March, 1918, to October, 1918, when he "was again wounded in action.

" While serving as a soldier," states the petition, " he impressed all who knew him as a particularly fine man, absolutely fearless, generous to a fault, unfailingly cheerful in danger or hardship, and his moral character was of a high standard." The petitioners state that it seems tothem impossible that a'man who could command their affection and respect as he did could bo a criminal in the ordinary sense. They draw attention to the jury's recommendation to mercy and to the peculiar coincidence between the time of the crime and zero hour in the Somme battle in which he took part, and conclude by praying that the mercy of the Crown be extended to Jepson and that his sentence be commuted to one of imprisonment.