WILLOUGHBY MURDER

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10137, 7 November 1910, Page 3

WILLOUGHBY MURDER

DEATH SENTENCE COMMUTED. The Now South Wales State Executive Council" recently, reports the Sydney Daily Telegraph, on ( the recommendation of tV'. Cab- j inet, commuted tlio death sentence passed upon William John | Phillips, who murdered his eight- j year old (laughter at Willoughby, to penal servitude for life, it is not intended that Phillips should ever j be liberated. i REASONS OF THE CABINET. , The Attorney-General, Mr W. A. Holman, made the following statement in explanation of the reasons which led the Government to take this action : "The Cabinet sat for two successive days to consider the case of Phillips, and gave it four or five hours most anxious consideration. They were ultimately able to arrive at a determination to recommend that his sentence should be commuted to one of penal servitude for life. The task has been a particularly painful one. The evidence was of a most revolting description, and the nature of the crime is one which very largely shuts out the perpetrator from any claim for sympathy or consideration. There is only one circumstance which in any way i lightens its atrocity. The medical evidence gives us every ground to r hope and believe that the frightful injuries which were inflicted on the unfortunate child were perpetrated after her death, and it was the theory of the prosecution that they were committed I.'1 .' the murderer with a view to making it appear that some stranger had ravished and then killed the child. "The Cabinet have left a minute on record stating the extreme difficulty with which they were able to . come to a conclusion favourable to the prisoner in this case, and stating further that they have remitted the death penalty only on the understanding arrived at amongst them- . selves that every possible step shall < be taken to secure his detention in gaol for life. Such a minute cannot, ' of course, bind any future Cabinet I that may have to deal with this j man's case, but the Ministry think that it will be given full weight by < any Cabinet that may have any petition presented to it. "Believing, as we do, that punishment should he deterrent, and regarding the death penalty as a necessity only to be applied to cases of | calculated and premeditated crime, | where its existence would form one 1 of the factors to be taken . into ac- | count by calculating criminals, and J regarding its deterrent effect as prac- | tically inoperative in crimes of pas- j sion and gross animal brutality, such as this one was, my colleagues, after long and agitated discussion, concluded that this was a class of case in which little or no social good would be effected by inflicting the i final penalty of the law. Other crim- \ inals likely to commit similar crimes would not be deterred in their moments of criminal excitement by i this penalty, and it was thought that I the interests of society could bo best served by making sure that this particular offender should have no further opportunity of offending again.

"Coming to this view they were able to decide upon a recommendation to his Excellency that the death penalty passed should be commuted to one of penal servitude for life, and, as I have said, a minute will be placed on record expressing the strong opinion of the present Ministry that the prisoner is not a man of the'type who should ever he released from imprisonment. WHY THE DELAY? In a subsequent statement, Mr Holman said: "With regard to the man's case, I must point out that he was sentenced on September 14th. The elect - ions took place on October 14th, and the present Ministry came into office on October 21st, five weeks after the passing of the death sentence. This wretched man had been left in the condemned cell in this frightful state of suspense for this period of time. The moment we were sworn in arrangements were made to deal with the matter. I was directed by the Premier to take over my own office next day, at considerable inconvenience to myself, in order that the papers might be obtained and distributed. Cabinet met on the ncxtavailable day (Monday week last), and although unable to conclude its deleberations, it finished them on the next day. "My colleagues and I feel with some keenness their situations in being confronted in the opening days of an unexperienced Cabinet with a case of this frightful character, which their predecessors have, had so many opportunities of dealing with. I do not believe any incoming body of Ministers have ever been confronted with a more painful task, or one that has affected them more deeply that this one has. I don't want to say anything more aboiit the matter now, but I think that it is a wrong, both to the wretched criminal, and to iho public interest," to have left this, case in suspense for so long a period."