PRISONERS PEEVED

NZ Truth, Issue 854, 1 April 1922, Page 5

PRISONERS PEEVED

Crooks Who Are Cross With Their ?. Convictions

The right of prisoners to appeal against convictions and sentences is only just becoming. popular. When the Appeal Court sat m Wellington a few months ago there were only a bakers' half-dozen or so of appeals from hoarders up on the. hill, forestry ex- ( tperts from the Rotorua district, farm hands from Paparpa, Borstal blokes and iother pippy prisoners, but when the list wasi drawn up for the Court this, week the names of about twenty hopefuls took up half the space. Quite a few of those who have taken the chance m the past walk about to-day and wave their hats with loud cheers when the lawyer who talked to the Bench for them heaves m sight, but some merely walk about, doing jobs, no better and no worse, but if the Court can call a conviction off and scratch off a few months or a few years with a wipe of a "J" pen and a wallop of a date stamp, it can likewise lump on months or -years if it thinks that will do any good, and when it does that once or ' twioe— -and it may within the next few years when a bad case or two" happens along? — appeals may come a thud. Up to a few months ago prisoners with a tale to re-tell, had a fair chance of a free trip over Bill's railways to Wellington, but now they have to show mighty good cause before they are let off their, daily chores to back up' their lawyer friends. Only some of the twenty cases were heard this week; here a-re a few of them : ... (