DEATH SENTENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 July 1942, Page 3

DEATH SENTENCE

PASSED BY COURT=MARTIAL ON LEONSKI MURDER OF THREE WOMEN IN MELBOURNE. CONDEMNED MAN SHOWS NO EMOTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. At the Leonski court-martial, the defence counsel, in closing! his address, contended that each murder showed the actions of a man with a disordered mind, incapable of reason, plan or malice aforethought. In no case, said counsel, had there been definite identification of Leonski with the crimes. The Judge-Advocate, in reply, said he was conscious of his full responsibility when he said Leonski, by three fiendish and atrocious crimes, had demonstrated himself to be a person unfit to live or to continue to live. He was a constant threat to the lives of others and a terrible example to those who might be inclined to follow his unfortunate path. The addresses concluded at 6 p.m. and, after an adjournment of twenty minutes, the court reopened, when the president asked whether there were any court-martial convictions against the defendant. On being informed negatively, the Court again closed, reopening thirty minutes later, when the President announced that, by a secret and written ballot, three-quarters of the Court members concurring, Leonski had been found guilty on the three charges and, with all the Court members concurring, sentenced to be hanged until he was dead. Leonski displayed no emotion when the sentence was announced and walked from the room amid a strong escort.