JOSEPH PAWELKA'S SENTENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10065, 10 June 1910, Page 5

JOSEPH PAWELKA'S SENTENCE.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—lt was with amazemsnt that I read Judge Cooper's sentence on the unfortunate man "Pawelka." Twenty one years is a crushing sentence to any criminal even when it is well deserved, and it would be most interesting to aee how many times such a sentence has been imposed in the annals of New Zealand crime, even in the case of murderers, whose sentences have been commuted to lifelong imprisonment. It will, I think be generally conceded that in the catie of the most desperate criminals, and I hardly think Pawelka comes under this category. It is always a wise proceeding on th 3 part of a Supreme Court Judge, to leave a margin, whereby if a prisoner commits any offence against Prison Regulations, such as assaulting warders, or effecting, or trying to escape, he can be brought before the Court again to raceive an additional cumulative sentence. In the present instance, how- | ever, assuming that Pawelka commits j any such offence, it would be interes- | ting further imprisonment he could incur; and if sentence can add no further sting, what is to prevent him from trying to escape and perhaps being successful in doing so, then what would be the consequences of such escape. I contend, sir, that the Judge has erred considerably in leaving no such margin, and thus enabling the prisoner to reduce part of his sentence by good conduct and conforming to prison rules. In this seemingly revengeful sentence, the prisoner has nothing to hope for, and certainly nothing to live for, and even when a person has his fre-dom without interest in life, one usually descends to a suicide's grave. It wculd be very interesting if one could arrive at the sentence this man would have received at ihe hands of the same Judge on the crime committed before he broke from custody. As seen from the reports to hand he rtceived seven years. But he surely wouli not have received the half of this had he not escaped. Next he re- ■ ceived two years for the theft of a bicycle, on which I presume he eifected part of his escape. For larceny he received seven years and for arson, seven years. In the latter sentence one has in mind th j Chief Jus- | tioe's sentence on the perpetrators of the Wanganui Arson case, where human life was at stake, and yet they received only five years, and it was proved to the hilt • against them! Taking into consideration the long list of unequal sentances for ! equal offences, and the stunning blow which this particular Pawelka sentence has dealt the people, I think it high time that where sentences of over five years are merited the exact, sentence should only be determined by a council uf the Judges of the Supreme Court, which should certainly lend to fit the sentence to the crime. Before conclu would like to mention the celebrated Dunedin robbery with violence case, where Ramsay and Cairns attacked Sargood, Son, and Ewen's pay clerk, who was struck down in ! broard daylight, with a bar of iron, and revived of cash tj t':e value of £240. The money was never recovered, they got what they dvserved in fifteen and ten years respectively from Justice Williams. But Pawelka? I am, etc., "MERCY."