CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 787, 1 April 1887, Page 15

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL.

Sir, —Many Have thought lately on the subject of death punishment for criminals. A few words may be allowed mo. There is no doubt that the Bible commands that death should be the punishment for murder. No ingenuity can alter the meaning of the words spoken to Noah, “ Who so sheddeth man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed.” In the New Testament we have the same command confirmed inferentially, as when St. Paul speaks of himself, “ If I have committed anything worthy of death I refuse not to die,” and as when he speaks of the Roman Magistrate, “ He facath not the sword in vain.” Punishment is not to be inflicted only for the reformation of the criminal, but also for the protection of society. If a murderer is only punished by imprisonment, there is a most terrible danger that he may kill any fellow prisoner, or any warder, who may chance to have offended him. What happened at Nelson is proof how real this danger is. That society is not sufficiently protected by any relaxation of the customary sentence upon a murderer was also proved to me by an incident in Wellington gaol. When, in 1862, I visited a prisoner condemned to die for shooting his officer, he said to me, “If lam not hung there will be another officer shot at Wanganui.” He meant that his comrades would run the chance of suffering the lesser punishment, but would not incur the risk of a death penalty. Those who have witnessed executions know that hanging is a merciful death. The criminal is so stunned by the sudden check after a drop of Bix feet that all sensation is destroyed. The prisoner to whom I have alluded appeared after death to be asleep. Motion of the body does not show that there is suffering, for many under chloroform show apparent signs of suffering when they have had no sense of pain. The preparations for death are the worst pact of the death, and there must be these preparations however the death be inflicted. My own judgment is that death cannot be more quickly done, or more mercifully, than by our English custom. Those who object to death punishments altogether, should think well of the answer of Napoleon 111. to those who asked him to abolish death sentences, “Yes, gentlemen, I will, when you have first arranged the neces sity for them with messieurs les assassins !” For the protection of society there should be no relaxation in anything of the punishment for murder that is deterrent ; and for this reason a grave mistake was lately made in allowing the burial of the dead by others than the prison officials. All prisoners diead burial inside the prison walls. This burial is of force with them. If any wish to avoid it they can avoid the necessity for such burial. Life is too sacred a thing to permit the safeguards around it to be in any way broken down. —I am, etc., A. Stock.