THE DEATH SENTENCE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1408, 8 April 1912, Page 5

THE DEATH SENTENCE.

SUICIDE AS AN ALTERNATIVE. Bj Telecr«.DH-Preas AssociaUon-C&uyrlilhl . . Tokio, April 5. A private Bill has been introduced in tho Japanese Diet to permit iTiminals sentenced to death to commit suicide. Another similar proposal is reported in the "Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology," as follows:—"A Code Commission m Nevada, United States of America, has presented to the Legislature of that State a Bill giving condemned men the choice of death by hanging, shooting, cr'takim; poison. Hydrocyanic acid is tho specified poison. Ono drop of it at the end of tho tongue will causo instant death. If the condemned man chooses this means of deatli he should be provided, at least ten minutes before tha time appointed for carrying out the death sentence, by order of tho warden, with a sufficient quantity of the acid to cause death. A physician should explain to him (the prisoner) tho proper method of talcing it, and tho following should be written on the bottle:— "There is contained herein a sufficient quantity of hydrocyanic acid to cause instantaneous death. You are authorised to take the same for the purpose of carrying info execution tlio sentence of death heretofore legally pronounced against you.' If the prisoner should fail to take the poison ho shall then be hanged immediately." The Hill has not yet been passed, and there has been a good deal of iontroversy as to tho morality of the proposal which it embodies.