STIGMA FOR LIFE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20731, 15 February 1939, Page 8

STIGMA FOR LIFE

IMPASSIONED SPEECH PRISONER’S OUTBURST “FOREVER AN OUTCAST” (By Telegraph.—Press Association) AUCKLAND, Wednesday In a dramatic and bitter speech from the dock in the Supreme Court to-day George Henderson (30), labourer. told how experience had made him believe that a conviction on a criminal charge placed a stigma on a man s life. Henderson had been found guilty by a jury on three charges of vagrancy and Mr Justice Fair sentenced him to twelve months’ imprisonment. “I wish to say I have come to the conclusion that once a man has had the misfortune to fall against the law and then falls again it is absolutely useless for him to expect any mercy, .justice or respect,” said Henderson before sentence was passed. “Although he lias already paid his previous debt to society, the machinery of the law will not be satisfied to punish the victim of circumstances only for the offence for which he has been convicted. He is forever in the eyes of his fellow men an outcast and his word can never be taken as the truth.” Henderson added that he had been found guilty on this occasion because he had been hampered by circumstances from proving his innocence. The judge commented on Henderson’s long list of previous convictions.