EXECUTIONS

Southland Times, Issue 21093, 27 May 1930, Page 11

EXECUTIONS

LORD BRIDGEMAN’S VIEWS. QUESTION OF REPRIEVES. Of tho responsibility of deciding whether a man or woman conviced of murder shall go to the,gallows, Lord Bridgeman, a former Home Secretary, spoke recently from his own experience, says an English exchange. He was giving evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons which is considering the Capital Punishment Bill. “The Home he said, “considers every case in which sentence of death has been passed. “On the Home Secretary’s desk is always before him a complete list of the people who have been sentenced to death, and the dates of their execution. You are never allowed to forget it. X “The Home Secretary often finds considerable difficulty when he comes to consider certain cases. He decides each case on his own independent judgment. “He is not obliged to take advice. I can remember certainly two cases in which I acted in a way contrary to the advice of the Judges I had consulted. |

“In both cases I thought the sentence of death was not completely justified, and I recommended a reprieve.’’ Lord Bridgeman .said he was certainly in favour of the continuance of the death penalty. “I don’t think,” he added, “that any other plan of reviewing the sentence would be. an improvement on that of leaving it in charge of the Home Secretary. He is a human begenerally has a good deal of knowledge of the world, and is generally a very conscientious man.

“I cannot believe that, so far as the chances of obtaining justice are concerned, the criminal would have any better chance, and possibly a worse one, if he had his case reviewed by any other kind of judge or judges. “While the Horne Secretary cannot entirely ignore petitions for reprieve, he should not attach too much weight to them.” Dr Ethel Bentham: “It must be a very difficult and responsible task to come to the final decision.” ■

Lord Bridgeman: “It is. And if you ask me whether I would like it as Home Secretary, I should say: “Give the job to anyone in the world except me.’ ” His Duty.

It was repugnant, Lord Bridgeman, added for a Home Secretary to have to agree to a sentence of death on a woman when it was his duty to do so if the evidence justified it.

He himself had had to approve of capital punishment being carried out in the case of a woman. (Lord Bridgeman was Home Secretary at the time of the trial and execution of Frederick Bywaters and Mrs Edith Thompson for the murder of Mrs Thompson’s husband at Ilford in 1922). Dr Ethel Bentham: “Any difference between carrying out the extreme sentence on a man or woman you can only suggest is a matter of sentimentality?”—“Yes.” ■ Mr W. H. Ayles (Soc., N. Bristol): “Do you think that a board of three persons, including the Home Secretary would be a preferable method to the present method?” Lord Bridgeman: “No, I think tbe fact that the. Home Secretary has himself and his conscience to deal with makes him consider each case more conscientiously than might be the case if he could share the responsibility with two other people.’’ The Rev. William Cottrell, chaplain of Wormwood Scrubs, expressed the opinion that in the interests of the community capital punishment should be retained. Sir John Power (the chairman) : “You feel that no woman should be hanged?”— ‘‘On sentimental grounds only.” Of the fifteen men whom he had seen executed, said Mr Cottrell, he had felt that some might have been allowed to live. Everything possible was done to reduce any depressing effect on prisoners on tbe morning of an execution. All the clocks were stopped, so that they were unaware “the hour” had come.