SHADOW OF GALLOWS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 601, 1 March 1929, Page 11

SHADOW OF GALLOWS

MEN WHO HAVE BEEN REPRIEVED 1 SAVED BY APPEAL COURT It is to the credit of British judges and juries concerned that very few verdicts are upset after careful consideration by the Court of Criminal Appeal; and the number of alleged murderers snatched by the Higher Court from the gallows can be numbered on the fingers of one hand, says the “Sunday Express.” There was an exception recently, however, when Mr. W. A. FearnleyWittingstall, a young and rising barrister, appeared before three judges to plead the cause of William R. Hall, who had been sentenced to hang for the death by violence of Belcher Sines, at Colnbrook, in Gloucestershire. The barrister’s appeal was based on the statement that Hall had been attacked by a crowd, kicked in the face, and put in such a state that he “was not able to understand what he was doing.” In accepting this plea, the Lord Chief Justice pointed out that the judge who presided at the trial had placed before the jury the alternatives of conviction for murder or acquittal, though “it was now clear that Hall was labouring under such excitement that the offence ought to be reduced from murder to manslaughter.” It was, therefore, decided to quash the murder verdict and to convict the prisoner of manslaughter, for which he would be sent to penal servitude for 10 years. A Miner's Escape In December of last year there was an appeal against the death penalty by Edward Lloyd, an unemployed miner, who was sentenced for shooting a police-constable at North Hylton, near Sunderland. For this sentence there was substituted one of “Guilty, but insane,” because the judge had indicated that he would support a recommendation to mercy. A verdict of manslaughter was substituted for one of murder, and a sentence of seven years substituted for the capital sentence when Howard Ball, convicted at the Warwick Assizes, appealed to the High Court judges. Fresh material had come to light; hence the reduction of sentence. Another .famous case happened on September 28, 1911, when Charles Ellison, after being a fortnight in the condemned cell at Pentonville, walked Into the Strand a free man. The then Lord Chief remarked that the summing-up of the newlyappointed judge, Mr. Justice Avory, was faulty, “giving too great weight to the evidence of certain witnesses for the prosecution.” Other Instances The Court expressed regret that there was no power to order a new trial. A young Clerkenwell man was convicted of stabbing a woman in 1911; a sergeant of the Welsh Territorials was found guilty of the murder of a private on Christmas night, 1914; and Beard, a night watchman, was convicted in 1919 for the murder of a young girl. All these were saved from the gallows, though the House of Lords reaffirmed the sentence on Beard, who was later reprieved by the Home Secretary and committed to Broadmoor criminal lunatic asylum. Yet another instance was that of a foreman platelayer, Tom Gilbert, who had killed two other platelayers at Aylesbury. The Court of Criminal Appeal pronounced him insane. The whole history of the Appeal Court is one of astounding interest, and reveals the great care that is taken by the judges to ensure justice. The judges before they sit have mastered every detail of the cases, and know word for word the summing-up of the judges concerned at the trial. They are trained, impartial, and dispassionate.