FOUND GUILTY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4534, 22 November 1930, Page 3

FOUND GUILTY.

THE TOWNSEND MURDER,

DEATH SENTENCE PASSED,

New Plymouth, Nov. 20,

Sentence of death was passed to-day on Alexander Townsend, who was found guilty of [lie murder of his wife, Cora Alice Townsend, at Eitzroiy. The defence of insanity failed.

'Summing up, tin - Chief .Justice, Sir Michael Myers, said the ease for the Crown had been put by Mr. C. IT. Weston with scrupulous fairness and the defence had been eonducted with great skill and ability. The defence, said Sir Michael, relied for proof of ‘ insanity on the circumstances surrounding the family life of Townsend —the evidence of his moodiness and such things as that. Theire was also the medical evidence for the defence and that in rebuttal.

Ilis Honour explained the posilion in the New Zealand law as to insanity and delusions, and after referring to the possible delusions from .which the accused was said lo have been suffering, he said that even if they had existed in fact, they were not. such as to justify the commission of the crime, so that any defence of delusional insanity was not open to the accused in this case.

NATURE OE LEGAL INSANITY,

The real test of the case was that, laid down in the. Chimes Act as to a person at the. time being capable of understanding the quality and nature of the act and whether it was a .wrongful act. “Arc you satisfied,” said his Honour, “remembering that it is on the defence to prove it that this man was incapable of that?” His Honour explained the difference between medical and legal insanity, and said medical insanity did not absolve a person from responsibility for criminal acts. Unless the jury could find that the accused was at the time of the crime labouring under a disease of the mind which rendered him incapable of understanding ■ the nature and quality of his act, and that it was wrong, it was their duty, however unpleasant, to ■ return a verdict of guilty of murder.

The jury arrived at its verdict in ii little over an hour.

Immediately the verdict of guilty was anounced his Honour passed the death sentence.

Townsend had nothing to say. Through out the ordeal he remained apparently calm. As he stepped down from the dock he said quietly: “Very nice indeed.”