REPRIEVED.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1102, 15 April 1911, Page 5

REPRIEVED.

CLAPHAM COMMON MURDER. LARCELY-SICMED PETITION. REPORT OF COMMISSION OF INQUIRY. By Tclcsrapli—Press Association-Copyricht London, April 12. Stinie Morrison, who was sentenced ,t« death for tho murder at Clapham Common, early on New Year's Day, of Leon Beron, a French Jew, has been reprieved, and his sentence commuted to one of penal servitude for life. REASONS UNKNOWN. (Rec. April 14, 1.4 a.m.) London, April 13. The reasons for Morrison's reprieve are unknown. The newspapers recall the fact that Mr. Justice Darling, in pronouncing sentence, abstained from concurring with tho verdict. Tho Lord Chief Justice, in the Court of Appeal, remarked that the function of the Court was not to, say a verdict was right or wrong, but whether the trial was properly conducted. Tho newspapers comment on another feature, namely tho manner in w'i'.ch Mofrison's past was regaled. THE CONDUCT OF THE CASE. (Rec. April 14, 10 a.m.) London, April 13. The report of the Commission of Inquiry on the conduct of the Clapham Common case by the police declares that the proceedings were consistent with tho intention to arrest Morrison for a breach Of license. Nothing was mentioned to suggest that he was suspected of the murder. Constable Greavcs's version of the circumstances was untrue. The 'signatures to the petition to the Home Secretary asking for a reprieve numbered 70,000. In March the Home Office appointed a. Commission to investigate the polica statements concerning the arrest of Morrison, nnd to consider compensation claims by Sydney Street property-owners. During the trial Mr. Justice Darling made a searching inquiry into the treatment of Morrison by the police. Constable Greaves gave evidence that he wrote to Morrison's counsel in the interests of justice, detailing what had occurred at the police station. He said he had hesitated to speak earlier as he did not desire to implicate his colleagues. Constable Greaves, in cross-examination, admitted, that he had twice been suspended, firstly for making supposed untrue statements to the superintendent. He was thereafter transferred to another division.

Mr. Justice Darling, in summing-up, endorsed the jury's protest agninst tlie 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 been 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 when merely remanded on suspicion. The practice was obviously injurious to the prosecution, and was calculated to frustrate the whole ends of jnstice.