ATTEMPTED MURDER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3052, 24 November 1908, Page 5

ATTEMPTED MURDER.

A MASTERTON CASE. A SENTENCE OF SEVEN YEARS. A sentence of seven years' imprisonment with hard labour was imposed by Mr Justice Cooper, at the Wellington Supreme Court yesterday, on an elderly man named Tobias Miller, for having on September Bth, at Masterton, attempted to murder Ernest Eight by shooting him with a revolver. Mr Wilford, in pleading for leniency, said that the verdict of the jury and the order brought in showed that it believed Miller was suffering from a sense of injury which caused him —not to lose his mental balance, but to feel such'a sense of wrong that he hardly knew what he was doing. There was no doubt whatever that that was all that prompted him to commit the crime. He believed that his wife was betraying him, Since his incarceration l'ri prison the resentment towards Hight had passed away, and looking at the matter in a calm and dispassionate manner he had arrived at the conclusion that it was not worth bothering any longer about. Counsel referred to the effect of alcohol on prisoner's mind, and said that Miller now regretted having taken the law into his own hands. His Honor said that he had had enquiries made into Miller's antecedents; these were in the nature of a police report—the probation office!" was ill; consequently the report was not a report under the authority of the Probation Act. This was a case in which it was absurd to suggest that there should be anything but punishment. Mr Wilford: I have not mentioned that, your Honor. His Honor: "No. I mentioned that Mr Wilford, because you have mentioned something about his antecedents, and they do not tally with the police report." His Honor add 2d that be did not propose to take the police report; he proposed to act on the nature of the offence the prisoner had committed, and that was an offence of a very high degree. It was the second highest known in the law. Prisor.er had been found guilty of attempting murder, and the letters which had been put in showed that, although he contemplated suicide, he also contemplated murdering his wife; and he also contemplated—his acts showed it —to kill liight. His Honor thought it was only right to say in reference to Mrs Miller that the evidence satisfied him that, as far as she was concerned, she was a woman of good character against whom no reflections could properly be made. There was nothing in the evidence beyond the prisoner's bare statement which tended to cast discredit on her moral character. There was no doubt that Miller was possessed of an unfounded belief in his wife's unfaithfulness, and that was what provided a motion to the crime which he had committed. There was no doubt that he intended to kill Hight. Had the shot taken effect in a vital place and not been intercepted by a truss, His Honor saw nothing that could have saved prisoner from the last penalty of the law. The maximum penalty was imprisonment for life. His Honor would take into consideration to some extent the recommendation of the jury, but he must inflict upon the prisoner a substantial punishment. This offence could not be dealt with with a kidgloved hand. The court had to administer the law. He had to punish the prisoner not only for the very high offence that he had been found guilty of, but he had to determine also a deterrent to other persons who might have murder in their hearta. His Honor regretted to see a man of ability like prisoner in such a position. His downfall no doubt was due to drink —and probably to drugs as well as drink. He was afraid that that had something to do with the position. His Honor could only do his duty, and he could not pass a less sentence on prisoner than seven years' imprisonment with hard labour. —"Post".