DEATH PENALTY UNLIKELY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19070, 18 July 1936, Page 5

DEATH PENALTY UNLIKELY

FATE OP ERIC MAREO MATTER FOR COUNCIL (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The fact that the abolition of capital punishment has been a plank in the Labour Party platform for many years, and that individual members of the party are opposed to capital punishment will not be a factor which will enter into the Executive Council's consideration of the fate of Eric Marco, who is under sentence of death for the murder of his wife. The Council will consider the ca.se on its merits. It will take into consideration the unusual circumstances existing in the Marco household at the time of tlie murder, the possibilities of Marco being influenced by liquor or drugs, tlie recommendation of mercy by the jury in the first trial, and the confidential report of the presiding judge in the second trial. It is considered most unlikely that the death penalty will be carried out. Were there no circumstances which the Executive Council could take into consideration, then .the Cabinet, would be faced with the alternative of approving the death sentence, or having tho law altered to permit of its abolition. Because of the circumstances of the Marco case, it will not yet lie faced With this important issue. So far no application has been made for leave to apply for a new trial.