AN ILLEGAL OPERATION.
SENTENCE OF FIVE YEARS' IMPRISONMENT. AUCKLAND, February 21. Mary Rush, alias Haslett," was sentenced to iive years imprisonment for performing an- illegal operation on Elsie M'Farlane. Mr Justice Stringer said the prisoner had boon convicted on very clear evidence. He was unable to iindi any circumstance to mitigate the offence. It had been suggested by counsel that severity of punishment in these oases might cause reluctance of juries to convict. This was fairly evident, but if so* it should bo altered. It had also boon said that -the immunity enjoyed by persons who submitted to illegal operations should bo taken into account. The law said that, while life imprisonment might be the punishment for anyone guilty of an illegal operation, the maximum penalty for those who submitted to illegal operations was seven years' imprisonment. The differences in punishment- were duo to the fact that in one case the offence was committed for money-making; in the other it was usually resorted to as the result of great distraction or tho fear of shame or exposure.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 3337, 27 February 1918, Page 20
Word Count
177AN ILLEGAL OPERATION. Otago Witness, Issue 3337, 27 February 1918, Page 20
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