DEATH SENTENCE COMMUTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 370, 2 June 1928, Page 1

DEATH SENTENCE COMMUTED

LIFE IMPRISONMENT FOR MURDERER STATE EXERCISES PREROGATIVE OF MERCY THE sentence of death which was passed upon Allan George Nor grove a fortnight ago has been commuted by the State to imprisonment for life. The Executive Council, comprising the Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergussom, Sir Francis Bell, Leader of the Legislative Council, and the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, reached this decision at a special sitting at Auckland this morning, acting upon the recommendations of the full Cabinet, which considered the case at Wellington earlier in the week. The sitting this morning lasted the best part of an hour. ■

Norgrove, who was found guilty of having murdered his sister-in-law, Ernistina Mary Norgrove, at New Lynn, was to have been hanged next week. , In announcing the decision of the

Executive Council this, morning, the Prime Minister made the followingstatement: — “The question as to whether Norgrove was sane within the legal definition of that term was decided by the jury at the trial, and that question was not considered by the Executive Council. “The function of the Executive Council was to consider whether there were any facts or circumstances relating to the personal or family history of the prisoner which should be considered by the Executive Council, to whom the law remits the question whether the death penalty should be inflicted.” “Acting on the advice of the judge

who tried the case, the Government appointed Dr. Gray, Inspector-General of Mental Hospitals, and Dr. McKillop, superintendent of the Sunnyside Mental Hospital at Christchurch, to make a special examination and report. “It must he borne in mind that in the case of murder the law allows only one penalty, but it is then the duty of the Executive Council, in reviewing the case, to take into consideration any circumstances which in cases other than that of murder might properly have been taken into consideration by the presiding judge in passing sentence. “The Government has given full consideration to the very careful report- of these doctors, in which, after exploring every source of information, they reviewed: — (a) The facts and circumstances of the tragedy. (b) The abnormal early personal traits of the prisoner, as disclosed in his school life, and by the statements of another school teacher who did not give evidence at the trial. (c) His physical ill-health, which left him largely unoccupied, and subject to fits of depression. (d) The existence of mental disease in his family, which in the opinion of the doctors affords substantial corroboration of the instability which has existed from his early years, and which has throughout his life been reflected by exhibitions of temper and self-indiscipline. (e) The motive for the crime, and the fact that it was unpremeditated, and the result of a quarrel between himself and the murdered woman. “The conditions ascertained are such as are generally accepted as sufficient to justify the exercise of the prerogative of mercy, and accordingly his Excellency-in-Council has decided to commute the sentence to that of imprisonment for life.”