1930-04-05 — Page 6

Hongkong Telegraph 港電新報 士蔑新聞 All

The

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1930.

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EO-29

DEATH PENALTY ON

WOMAN.

LORD BRIDGEMAN ON -A "REPUGNANT DUTY.”

'Lord Bridgeman, a former Home- Secretary, spoke from his own ex- perience, of the dread responsi bility of deciding whether a man or woman should die on the gallows.

He was giving evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commans, which is considering the Capital Punishment Bill.

Women, who again predominated among the members of the general public present, listened breath- fessly while he described his grim duty of making a decision in the case of condemned women.

"I am in favour of the con- tinuance of the death penalty," Lord Bridgeman told Sir John Power, the chairman. It was the only deterrent to murder,

"I don't think," added Lord Bridgeman, "any other plan of re- viewing the sentence would be an improvement on that of leaving it in charge of the Home Secretary. He is a human being, who generally has a good deal of knowledge of the world, and is generally a very conscientious man.”

Dr. Ethel Bentham: It must be a very difficult task to come to the final decision?

"It is," replied Lord Bridgeman, "and if you ask me whether I would like it as Home Secretary, I should say: Give the job to any- one in the world except me.""

It was repugnant, he said, for a Home Secretary to have to agree to a sentence of deuth on a woman when it was his duty to do so.

He himself had had to approve of capital punishment being car- ried out in the case of a woman.

Lord Bridgeman was Home Se- cretary at the time of the execu tion of Mrs. Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters for the Ilford murder.]

Mr. W. II. Ayles: Do you think! that a board of three persons, in- eluding the Home Secretary, would be a preferable method to the pre- sect method?

Lord Bridgeman: I do not. I think the fact that the Home Secre- tary has himself and his consci- ence to deal with makes him con- sider each case more carefully and more conscientiously than might be the case if he could share the responsibility with two other peo- pie.

Witnessed 15 Executions,

The Rev. William Cottrell, chap- lain of Wormwood Scrube, exress. ed the opinion that in the interests of the community capital punish- ment should be retained.

"You feel that no woman should be hanged?" asked Sir John Power, "On sentimental grounds only." replied Mr. Cottrell.

He had witnessed 15 executions. He thought that men reprieved and sentenced to imprisonment for life should not be plunged into the world after 15 or 20 years without any knowledge of the changed conditions they had to face.

think they might be given a day off occasionally," he said, "allowed out on parole.

" the 15 men whom I have seen executed I have felt perhaps half or more might have been allowed to live.

"I feel that they would have be- come really honest men and able to take their places in decent society."

He would like to see a less period than 15 years as the life sentence.

"I am in touch with many re- prieved murderers to-day." said Mr. Cottrell, "and they are eplen- id fellows. Some of them are married and have happy families." When Prison Clock Stops. He thought the time allowed to elapse between the time of the death sentence and the execution was too long. It used to be a maxi- mum of 18 days, but he had known of a case where 50 days had elapsed.

Everything possible was done to reduce any deprossing effect on prisoners on the morning of an execution. All the clocks were stopped so that they were unaware "the hour" had come.

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