THE DEATH PENALTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1920, Page 9

THE DEATH PENALTY.

WHAT THE LAW PROVIDES. The Crimes Act requires that a sentence of death shall not be carried out lintil the pleasure of the GovernorGeneral with respect thereto is made known. The sentence must be executed ■vitbin seven days of the receipt by the nheriff of notice that the Governor-Gen-eral will not interfere with such sentence.

It has long been the rule in England to allow a condemned man three weeks between the pronouncement of his sentence ■ and his execution. In Xew Zealand no definite period is fixed, but in general, unless there is a delay in reviewing the case, three weeks is the ordinary period of life allowed to the criminal.

As- a matter of practice, the depositions at the trial, with a report upon the whole ease by the judge, are forwarded to the Executive Council, which coivfiders them along with any further facts regarding the case that may have come to light in the meantime. In the Ponsonby murder case, it may ba mentioned, counsel for the defence Stated in his address to the jury that if the accused were found guilty there was no reason to suppose that tlife death penalty would not bo carried out. "A verdict of guilty means death," was his summing up of tho position.

It is nine years since a criminal has been executed in the Auckland prison (says the Star). The condemned man was then a yonng Maori named Tahi Kaha, who paid the supreme penalty on dune 21, 1!)11, for murdering an old man named John Freeman at Pubipuhi on April 5 of that year. Persons previously executed at Auckland numbered eighteen. As is well known, executions must take place within the walls of a gaol or other enclosed plate gazetted for the purpose. Xof more than ten adult male spectators are allowed to be present in addition to the officials who are. required bv law to attend.