BLACK CAT TO REMAIN
APPEAL FAILS. Must a judge continue to tell a woman, convicted of child murder, that she will “hang by the neck until dead” when she is almost certain to be reprieved? An appeal for the softening of the last grim scene in murder trials was made in the House of Commons last month by Mr Hales. He suggested that the black cap should go and that the phrasing of the death sentence to avoid unnecessary suffering to convicted persons, especially women, be altered. His appeal failed. Sir J. Gilmour, the Home Secretary, said the black cap was part of the official costume of the judge. The form of words ordinarily used in passing sentence of death was settled by the judges in 1903, and there were difficulties in the way of the adoption of a special form of words or procedure in particular cases.
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Southland Times, Issue 22131, 27 September 1933, Page 6
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148BLACK CAT TO REMAIN Southland Times, Issue 22131, 27 September 1933, Page 6
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