"DEAD MEN―"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17232, 11 April 1930, Page 2

"DEAD MEN― "

INNOCENTS HANGED LAW’S WEAKNESS LONDON, March 29. Gi\b.g evidence before the Capita. Punishment Committee, Lord Luck master, who was Lord Chancellor in 1915-16, said that lie could not accep. the theory that no innocent man hat been hanged. If Oscar Slater had been hanged no more would have been heart of t!ie case. Nobody troubled about ; dead man. Lord 1 Sack mas ter cited the Adolpl Beck case and a man sentenced to death tor murder to which Charles Peace latei confessed. lie contended that if the cleat! penalty were retained, murders shoulc ee divided into three degrees. He wa. not satisfied that capital punishment wa: a deterrent. Social opinion was the only real deterrent against crime. Humtu life was a sacred thing, and not to be taken away either by an individual o: a (ioverninent. The Adolph Heck case is famous n British criminal annals. Heck, who wa a. man in good circumstances, was ; victim of mistaken identity and serve several years’ penal servitude for : crime committed by another man win bore a striking resemblance to him. Shortly after his release from prison Beck was again arrested for a simila. offence, and placed in the dock. It was ilien revealed that he bad a double and tiie real criminal was arrested. Heck, now a ruined man, was pardoned and 'compensated. Charles Pence was one of the most amazing criminals ever known. He had extraordinary powers of disguise, both in make up and features, and could twis‘ his face in a way which would deceive his closest friend. After countless dating crimes he was finally betrayed by ; woman and sentenced to death for mu: deiing a policeman. He then confessed that he was guilty of a 'crime for which an innocent man was at that moment ia the condemned cell.