A MURDERER'S RIGHTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 294, 6 May 1911, Page 4

A MURDERER'S RIGHTS.

QUESTION 7 OF PUBLIC POIJCY. ECHO OF THE CASH CASE. Early on tlie morning of Christmas Day, 1910, Charlotte Sarah Cash was murdered by her husband, Alfred Albert Cash, in her own house at Helensville, north of Auckland. Cash was tried for the crime at the February sittings of the Supreme Court, found guilty of wilful murder and sentenced to death. The sentence was subsequently commuted to one of imprisonment for life, and Cash is now a prisoner in the Auckland fiaol. Some years previously Cash had transferred to his wife such real and personal property as he possessed, so that Mrs. Cash left some estate. She died intestate, and administration of her estate was granted to the Public Trustee. As she left_ no issue, the estate would, .under ordinary circumstances, haye gone to her husband. But the circumstances are not ordinary, and the Public Trustee, as representing the next-of-kin of tlie deceased other than Alfred Albert Cash, brought an action in the Supreme Court in order to get from the Court a direction as to whether Cash ougut to be allowed to succeed. This action was heard before his Honor Mr. Justice Chapman in the Wellington Supreme Court on Thursday. There were no facts to dispute. The question for the Court to determine was whether the policy of the law would allow any 'benefit to accrue to a criminal by his own act. In other words, should a murderer inherit his victim's property? His Honor said that the proceedings were quite necessary; not only so, but it was reasonable that the case should be argued. It would not have been safe for the Public Trustee to decide the matter himself, nor for his counsel to decide it for him. "I have very little doubt as to the result," his Honor added, "but I prefer to put it into writing."