DEATH SENTENCES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 16

DEATH SENTENCES

NEW SOUTH WALES TOTAL OF 15 CASES YOUTHS FOR EXECUTION DECISION OF CABINET i-i r By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyriebt (Received April 23, 10.25 p.m.) SYDNEY, April 23 The New South Wales Cabinet to-day decided that the death, sentences passed on Frank Howard Jones, aged 20, and Edwin John Hickey, 17, shall be carried out. Jones will be executed on May 7 and Hickey on May 14 at Long Bay penitentiary. The case of another youth hasi been postponed for further consideration. Including the two youths to be executed there are at present 15 men under sentence of death in New South Wales. The latest is James Earsman, aged 68, •who to-day, at Dubbo, was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of John Howitt, aged 94, at Gilgandra. The victim was killed in his hut on January 20, the niotive apparently being robbery. Earsman was recommended to mercy. In the Sydney Criminal Court on December 2, Frank Howard Jones, labourer, was convicted on a charge of wounding Allan Clarke on June 30 with intent to murder him. Mr. Justice Halse Rogers sentenced accused to death. An armed man wearing a mask (alleged to have been Jones) held up the stationmaster, Arthur Jav, at North Strathfield, a suburban railway sttation, at midnight on June 30 and demanded the booking office takings. Jay told the intruder he had no money and no keys, whereupon a. shot was fired in his direction. The report attracted two porters, one of whom, Allan Clarke, defied the bandit' and was shot in the abdomen. After the outrage the bandit escaped. Edwin John Hickey, a dairy hand, 'was found guilty in the Sydney Criminal Court on December 16 of murdering Mr. Montague Henwood, the New South W T ales Conciliation Commissioner, whose hodv was found beside a railway line. Hickey was sentenced to death. His defence was that Mr. Henwood endeavoured to assault him and during a struggle in the railway carriage Hickey killed Sir. Henwood with a water bottle, rifled his pockets and threw his body out of the train. The Judge said it was quite apparent that the j ,ir y had rejected the vile excuse Hickey had made for his terrible act.