EVEN SUCH a stalwart hanger as Sir Thomas Moore, MP,
can hardly be happy about the Attorney-General's decision. I see he is to move a motion this Friday calling for the reintroduc- tion of hanging and flogging. One of his reasons apparently is that the Courts have found the new Homicide Act difficult to understand and in- terpret; and he must regret therefore that an authoritative interpretation of it by the House of Lords has twice been prevented by the Attorney- General. Sir Thomas has been preparing the ground for his motion by getting the latest murder figures from Mr. Butler.-These were : April-December, 1956,. -.. 139 April-December, 1957 .. 176 'In 1956 hanging was de facto abolished, in 1957 there were a couple of executions. I suppose if Sir Thomas was going to argue strictly from these figures he would have to call for the com- plete abolition of capital punishment. In fact whatever the penalty, there are bound to be short- term variations in the murder rate, particularly as 65 per cent. of murderers either commit suicide or are found insane at some stage of the proceed- ings, and another 25 per cent. have some history of mental trouble.
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