[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Like many of your
readers, I welcome your splendid article on "The Old Bailey and the Press," and agree with every , word of it. It is easy but usually inaccurate to explain any . species of human behaviour by reference to a single cause, and I certainly have no intention of doing so. But is not one of the main causes of the sensationalism such as that aroused by the recent case the death penalty itself? That penalty
turns every murder trial into a gladiatorial contest where the accused is fighting for his or her life against all the forces of the State. Add to such a situation the fact that the accused is a woman and the alleged crime the outcome of an illicit sex relationship,'and the sensationalism is inevitable. Remove the gladiatorial element, and the sensationalism would not dis- appear, but it would be considerably lessened. At least that has been the experience of the many countries which have abolished the death penalty. As you rightly say, a Press censorship in such cases is open to objection, in that it would tend to undermine confidence in our administration of justice, and the fundamental remedy is to educate public taste. Mean- while another way of lessening the evil lies at our hands.—
I am, Sir, &e., E. ROY CALVERT. National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, Parliament Mansions, Victoria Street, London, S.W. 1.
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