CO129-304 - Governor Sir Blake - 1901 [1-4] — Page 595

%

}

589

by His Excellency, the Chief Justice stated that in his opi-

nion the evidence adduced at the trial justified the jury in

returning a verdict of guilty; and that according to the facts

brought out in the evidence it was impossible to reduce the

crime from murder to manslaughter. At the same time His Honour

stated that the evidence was entirely circumstantial; for which

reason combined with the possibility of the crime having been

committed in the course of a quarrel and under provocation, he

was not in favour of the carrying out of the death sentence.

Upon the withdrawal of the Chief Justice, His

Excellency emphasised the purely circumstantial nature of the

evidence, and stated that if the woman committed the crime it

was not unlikely that she did so in the heat of passion; this

according to the Chief Justice, would not justify the reduction

of the charge to one of manslaughter, but it would justify a

commutation of the sentence. All the members of the Council

with the exception of the two Unofficial members were of opi-

nion that the death sentence should he carried out. His Excel-

lency however decided that for the reasons stated he would

commute the sentence to one of imprisonment for life. His Ex-

cellency added that a medical Board had reported to the Go-

vernment that the condemned woman was in a state of pregnancy.

This fact would in any case necesitate a reprieve until deli-

very, and the Council concurred with the Governor in his belief

that it was not customary to carry out a death sentence on a

woman who had been granted a reprieve during her pregnancy.