SON TRIED FOR MURDER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 811, 4 November 1929, Page 11

SON TRIED FOR MURDER

mother killed to save 1 SUFFERING dispute with counsel ,„iird P- -1.— By Telegraph—Copyright Reed- 3 P m - TOULON, Sunday. A strange conflict has broken out between Francis Corbett, who is charged with matricide, and his counsel Maitre Brun. Corbett is tirmly resolved to plead justification of his deed, and is aneered by his counsel's decision to appeal for pity on the ground oE Corbett's mentality being weakened by study of occult science. Corbett declares emphatically that be will interrupt his counsel. It is too late for counsel to withdraw, or for Corbett to obtain a new one. The biry, iherefore, is confronted with an unusual, double-barrelled argument. Interviewed by the British United press. Corbett said "I am ready to (ic e the judges, without feor, without regret, and without excuse, except that I acted on motives of mercy. Many have urged me to change my plea, but I won't. I loved my mother; I killed ber because I loved her. I have no tear of death, because I tried to die. On the other hand, if 1 am to be sent to prison, I am ready.” The case is attracting tremendous interest in French judicial and psychic circles. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mr. H. f. Wells have written to Corbett saying they are willing to go to the trial as”witnesses, because they favour his theory.

Mrs. Corbett, an English resident of Nice, was, at the end ot' May last, found shot. The newspaper “Le Matin” . published a remarkable letter written by her son Francis, saying:—“A doctor announced in November that my mother was incurably cancerous. Why, then, have I released my mother from awful suffering? Because the State is unconscious of its duty to hopeless sufferers. There are 45,000 suicides annually in France, and half of these are the result of incurable diseases. It is the State’s duty to kill them if they so request. I Fired the shot point-blank at my mother’s temple during a sleep induced by a narcotic.” Francis was then said to be recovering from a wound allegedly selfinflicted after his mother’s death.