“PERFORM YOUR DUTY"

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXVI, Issue 7904, 19 September 1929, Page 2

“PERFORM YOUR DUTY"

FATHER ASKS DEATH PENALTY ON SON FRENCH MURDER TRAGEDY Australian and N.Z. Cable. PARIS, September 17. “Gentlemen of the jury, perform your duty. I demand the death penalty for my boy,” said a wobd cutter at the trial of two lads charged in the village of Digne, Provence, with murdering an entire family of five. After seeking shelter at a farmhouse for the night Jules Ughetto and Stephen Mucha shot the farmer, his wife, two children and a servant, in cold blood. The entire population of the country seethed with fury and vowed they would apply lynch law. The court was guarded by 40 mounted and 70 foot police. The prosecutor informed the judge that Mucha was five days under sixteen when he committed the murders, therefore he was not eligible for the death penalty. Ughetto’s father’s Spartan plea was fulfilled. The son was sentenced to death and Mucha to the maximum of twenty years’ imprisonment;