SOCIETY AND EXECUTIONS [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
have been well " acquaint " with Criminal Lav; and' Practice from my youth' up, and have conducted spores of murder cases either for the Crown or for the Defence— though but in a Crown Colony:" I am strongly opposed to the total abolition of Capital Punishment, but I would hive it confined to convictions for murder in the first Degree. , We continually hear _ in the Criminal Court of Appeal that the jury has found on the facts, and an appeal on the ground that the conviction was against the weight of evidence is practically hopeless. But' when a Jury debides strongly to recommend a convicted murderer to mercy, how can they have arrived at such a decision except by consideration of all the circumstances of the case ; in other words, the con- sideration of all the facts of the case ! If a Jury were given the power in a murder trial to substitute for such a recom- mendation a conviction only in the second degree, that would be a step in the right direction. I make bold to say that many verdicts of " Guilty " have only been obtained by compromise—that the Compliance of those who were over-persuaded by the other members is alone responsible for the unanimity of the verdict which otherwise would never have been obtained. I conceive this to be a very important consideration.—Your obedient servant,
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