PENALTY PAID
HATAITAI MURDER EXECUTION OF COATS t INNOCENCE DECLARED (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, December 17. George Errol Coats who was convicted at the last sessions of the Supreme Court on a charge of murdering Phillis Avis Symons at Wellington and who was sentenced to death by Judge Blair was hanged at the Wellington Prison, Miramar, shortly before 8 a.m. to-day. Coats met his end calmly. When asked by the Sheriff if he had anything to say before the sentence was carried into execution the prisoner from the scaffold said in a quiet voice tha-t he had not, except that he wished to thank those who had been connected with him (meaning presumably the prison officials), that he was innocent and that he trusted in the Lord. Death was instantaneous. An hour later an inquest on the body was conducted by the Coroner, Mr T. B. McNeil S.M, who returned a formal finding that the sentence of the Court had been carried out in accordance with the law.
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Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 21580, 18 December 1931, Page 8
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169PENALTY PAID Southland Times, Issue 21580, 18 December 1931, Page 8
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