SENTENCE OF DEATH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16538, 23 September 1921, Page 7

SENTENCE OF DEATH.

w PETITION FOR COMMUTATION. A petition is at present being circulated through New Zealand for the commutation of th© death sentence passed upon Hakarai Te Kahu, who was recently convicted at Hamilton of having murdered Richard Elliot at Ongaroto on Easter Sunday last, upon the grounds that it is likely that Elliot’s death was caused by Kahu accidentally. In the first two trials the jury disagreed but at the third trial a conviction was entered. Mr Hampson, of Hampson and Davya, solicitors, Rotorua, was the counsel for Kahu in each trial. A* Press Association message yesterday stated that the Court of Appeal at Wellington would hear on Saturday a motion for leave i* appeal against the death sentence. Tho petitioners are of opinion that after th© second trial Kahu informed th© police that he shot Elliot accidentally, and urge that substantial corroboration of this was given in the evidence as follows: (1) That the prisoner and the deceased were on a shooting expedition through ti-trees six to eight feet high; (2) The prisoner and deceased were good friends; (3) Tho prisoner’s gun had a defect which made both barrels likely to explode if one trigger was pressed ; this fact was proved by Colonel Hazard ; (4) Tho deceased had a comparatively small amount of money on him; prisoner was earning the same wages as deceased, and also possessed several horses and landed interests, and had no urgent need for the money; (5) The fact that prisoner had been previously in gaol for theft was likely to influence him in believing that.tho police would charge him with having caused the death of the deceased and he would therefore seek to get rid of the body ; (6) It is typical of the Native race that having denied all knowledge to the police lie would persist in such denial to the last moment; (7) In undergoing three trials for murder prisoner had passed through an ordeal without parallel in British jurisprudence.