DEATH SENTENCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1078, 17 March 1911, Page 5

DEATH SENTENCE.

CLAPHAM COMMON MURDER. POLICE METHODS. EXCITING. CLOSE OF THE TRIAL PROTEST AGAINST SNAPSHOTTING. By Tclegraph-Prese AsuMiation-CopyrigUt London, March 15. The tviul of Stoincr Morrison, charged with the murder, early'on New Year's Day on Clapham Common, of a French Jew named Leon Heron, has concluded. Tho prisoner was found guilty and (sentenced lo death. Hiving evidence regarding the theory that the motive of the crime was political revenge, Inspector Wcuslcy testified that the murdered man had not given information to tho police. Tho judge, after consultation with counsel, agreed to admit fresh evidence in the case. * Counsel for the prosecution argued that Steiner Morrison's defence rested almost entirely on his own oath. His attack on the witnesses suggested an inquiry into his own antecedents, and therefore he was searchingly cross-examined. Die prosecution contended that he was a practised burglar, and tho instrument of death was probably a jemmy. Regarding the allegations of political revenge, Inspector Wousley had testified that Beron did not give information concerning the Hounds-ditch outrage. Mr. Justice Darling made a searching inquiry into the treatment of Mdrrison. by the police. Constable Greaves gavo evidence that he wrote to Morrison's counsel in the interests of justice, detailing what had occurred at. the police station. Ik had hesitated to speak earlier as he did not desire to implicate his colleagues. Constable Greaves, ia cross-examina-tion, admitted that he had twice been suspended, firstly for complaining of hia Sergeant, and secondly for making supposed untrue statements to the superintendent. Ho was thereafter transferred to another division, Mr. Justice Darling, in summing up, endorsed the jury's protest against tho indiscriminate-snap-shotting of those engaged in the trial. It was far graver when people were permitted to photograph prisoners who had not yet been identified by those having testified against them. Such photographs might be seen by possibly uncertain witnesses, inducing' them to swear to identification which otherwise they may not have been unable to do. Morrison had been thus photographed yhen merely remanded on suspicion. The practice was obviously injurious to tho prosecution, and was calculated to frns-' trate tho whole ends of justice. Tho jury were absent for thirtr-fiva minutes. \ Morrison stood with his' arms ' folded and his head flung back, and gazed defiantly at tho foreman and the judge, and in reference to the closing sentence! "May God have mercy on your soul," exclaimed: "I decline such mercy. I do not believo there is a God in heaven." Mr. Winston Churchill, the Home Secretary, in reply to a question, said tho question of snapshotting at trials waa under consideration. • |