JURIES AND SENTIMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1930, Page 15

JURIES AND SENTIMENT

ACQUITTALS IN FINANCE. A strong attack upon the sentimentality of French juries has been made by M. Maurice Dekobra, the eminent French novelist. In an article published in Paris he insists upon the necessity oi capital punishment as a deterrent te murder. M. Dekobra cites the example of British justice. In England, he says, a person who commits murder, whatever his or her motive may be, knows well enough there is but little chance of escaping the gallows. In France, on the other hand, fewer than 20 per cent, of those guilty of murder go to the guillotine. The judges cannot help it. This state of things, M. Dekobra declares, is the fault of the jurymen, who are afraid to shoulder their responsibilities as citizens charged with the duty of protecting society from assassins. The case of a person who was hanged some time ago in England is quoted. His lawyer said, after sentence had been passed, “You should have done it in France; then, with a few theatricals, I could have got you off. I would have said that you killed your darling bride because you loved her so much.”