Letters to the Editor

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 34, 24 February 1937, Page 7

Letters to the Editor

' ' EYEN-HANDED JUSTICE. > '

In Cause of Justice SiTj-n-Prom V comment appearipg in print . .and heard ■ orally tlie opinion sednis wide'spread tliat tne result of tko rdcexl| trial .cnbans the condoii'ation oi tlit) crime .of . iilduced. abof tion. I think tJiere is another explanatibn. The pblice made, at the very outset, the vitai injstake of hot arrai^ning; the acconiplices along with the accusfed. The teihpter. as :well as the tenipted is equally . giiilty. , Por. the, jpolice to , saj tliat' the Women conpernhd cafae ft)iwprd willingly With. their eyidence and theref ote ^hhoiUd .be protfected is nbnsense. Their nach.0s,all appeared ip. the books of adcused as debtors to' he,r, and in my opinion their statements were not, in a true sense, voluhthry at all. ; . . In any case King's evidende (which may mean immunity from pfosecution ) is oniy resorted to when othef means of proving guilt ate unprochrable, ahd applies to one or two wi.tnesses at the -iiost, It was the one-sidedness of the prosec'uti'on which caused. the dissen- • sion in the juries. • , . A receiver of stolen goods stands trial aiong with the actual thieveiB (v^hen known) : xn such trifling daily cases as brbaches of the licensing latva the publieah and his 'guests appear together. In this case, had thh • adcomplices occupied the dock (as they shotild have done) alohg with the aCc'xlsed there wduld have be6n no nped for any second or stibsequent tiial* I venture h prophecy that, in the iiext case of- this kind, the police wiil hiake a better iob. — Yours. etc.,

Central Hawke 's B4ay, Eeb. 23/37.