PLEA FOR MERCY FAILS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 279, 15 February 1928, Page 1

PLEA FOR MERCY FAILS

JUDGE DISAGREES WITH JURY SATISFIED MURDER WAS INTENDED MACKENZIE GETS THREE YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT WITH an agonised cry as be heard Mr. Justice Reed sentence him to imprisonment for five years, Lawrence MacKenzic this morning collapsed in the dock and was carried below. He had been found guilty of assaulting his wife so as to do her actual bodily harm.

\fR. ALLAN MOODY, counsel for the accused, immediately drew til Honour'* attention to the fact that the court could not impose a sentence of more than three years according to the Crimes Act. Hi* Honour: That is so. I was under the impression that I was dealing with the question under another Act. The sentence will be altered to three years’ imprisonment.” MacKenzie was yesterday found guilty of an assault, causing actual bodily harm, the major count of attempted murder failing. The jury »lso made a strong recommendation for mercy on the ground that the ac(U9ed was worried. The case was that in which MacKenzie was alleged to have struck his •wife over the head with a hammer while she slept, and then to have turned on the gas in the room. The Crown drew attention to threats made by the accused to “do (or the lot of them." meaning his wife »nd live children. In his statement the accused had denied striking his wife and did not leem aware of what had really happened. The medical evidence showed that the accused was subject to epileptic Sts, and. that his condition may have peen the cause of the trouble. In summing up, his Honour said the Jury could not acquit accused simply because it might believe him mentally depressed at the moment, although not Insane. The jury deliberated three-quarters

of an hour before finding the accused not guilty of attempted murder, but guilty of an assault causing actual bodily harm. Pleading for the prisoner this morning, Mr. Moody said that ill-health and ill-fortune had dogged the prisoner. He also drew attention to the jury’s recommendation and asked that his Honour deal as leniently as possible with the prisoner. “BRUTAL ASSAULT” "According to the evidence,” said his Honour, "you have been unfortunate in losing your farm, but you were fortunate in the results which followed on this brutal assault. If you had struck your wife in another part of the skull you would have been standing your trial for murder. “You were fortunate, too, in having a sympathetic jury. I do not agree with the verdict, and I am satisfied you intended to murder your wife, but your nerve failed. You got that hammer with the sole purpose of either killing her outright or stunning her and then turning on the gas. “X don’t think your mental condition is such that you are irresponsible,” continued his Honour, “but I do not suppose your mental faculties are of a high quality. The jury recommended you to mercy on the ground that you were worried, but that dogs not appeal to me, because on that every man who was worried could kill his wife. Taking all the circumstances Into consideration, I cannot see my way clear to reduce the sentence from a substantial one.”