SENTENCE COMMUTED

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 138, 7 March 1921, Page 4

SENTENCE COMMUTED

TIMARU MURDERER IMPRISONED FOR LIFE.

By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, March 5. A meeting of the Executive Council was held in Christchurch this morning, when it was decided that the death sentence on Reginald Matthews, who murdered Clarence Wagstaffe at Timaru, should be commuted to imprisonment for life. The meeting was attended by t-h 0 Governor-General and the Hons. E. P- • Lee apd W. Nosworthy. The following statement was made after the meeting by Mr. Lee:—“The commutation of the sentence does not cast any reflection on the verdict of the jury. In all these cases ths Crown has to decide whether the prerogative of mercy, shall be exercised, and, in this particular case, after consideration of the medical reports, the ■ family history, and the low mentality of the convicted man, the Governor-General, ■ on the advice of the Executive Connoil, commuted the sentence to imprisonment for life." The Minister of Justice thinks that Matthews will go completely insane and die in a comparatively few years. Matthews would not be treated as a lunatic, and would lie sent to an ordinary prison. From the beginning Matthews had never realised the consequences of hie act. If did not necessarily follow that he would ever be released. He was a man who should never be let loose on society.