The Star: July 09, 2020
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Thursday <strong>July</strong> 9 <strong>2020</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
OPINION 15<br />
<strong>The</strong> death penalty: Is it foolproof ?<br />
From the<br />
editor’s desk<br />
Barry Clarke<br />
NO DOUBT there will be<br />
polarised views on the death<br />
sentence call from mosque<br />
shooting survivor Mohammad<br />
Alayan on our front page today.<br />
He was shot in the head and<br />
chest. Tragically, his son Atta<br />
was killed during the March 15<br />
terror attacks.<br />
It would be very hard to debate<br />
his point of view with him; it<br />
will be he who will feel the pain<br />
for the rest of his life over the<br />
loss of his son.<br />
In his victim impact statement<br />
which will be read when the terrorist<br />
is sentenced next month,<br />
Alayan says: “Crimes like the<br />
one committed on March 15,<br />
2019, are so heinous and inherently<br />
wrong that they demand<br />
the death penalty to deter such<br />
heinous crimes in the future,<br />
and to keep the society safe.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> death penalty is still one<br />
of the most debated social justice<br />
issues in the world.<br />
Twenty-two prisoners were<br />
executed in the United States<br />
last year.<br />
As of a month ago, six inmates<br />
had been executed in the US, five<br />
by lethal injection and one by<br />
electrocution.<br />
<strong>The</strong> last person to be executed<br />
in New Zealand was Walter Bolton,<br />
who was hanged at Mt Eden<br />
Prison on February 18, 1957, for<br />
the murder of his wife Beatrice.<br />
He was convicted of poisoning<br />
her.<br />
<strong>The</strong> death penalty for murder<br />
was abolished in New Zealand<br />
in 1961. <strong>The</strong>re was debate at<br />
the time this was partly due to<br />
the circumstances surrounding<br />
Bolton’s case.<br />
Traces of arsenic had been<br />
found in small doses in<br />
Beatrice’s tea. <strong>The</strong> quantity<br />
consumed over the best part of a<br />
year was enough to kill her.<br />
Water on the Bolton’s farm<br />
was tested and found to contain<br />
arsenic, and traces of arsenic<br />
were also found in Walter Bolton<br />
and one of his daughters.<br />
<strong>The</strong> defence argued that sheep<br />
dip had inadvertently got into<br />
the farm’s water supply. <strong>The</strong><br />
prosecution’s case was strengthened<br />
by evidence that Bolton had<br />
admitted to having had an affair<br />
with his wife’s sister, Florence.<br />
<strong>The</strong> idea Beatrice’s death was a<br />
result of accidental poisoning<br />
lost credibility.<br />
<strong>The</strong> jury returned a guilty<br />
verdict after deliberating for two<br />
hours and 10 minutes. When the<br />
judge asked Bolton why there<br />
was any reason he shouldn’t pronounce<br />
the death sentence, he<br />
replied, “I plead not guilty, sir.”<br />
A newspaper article later<br />
claimed that Bolton’s execution<br />
had gone horribly wrong. It<br />
highlighted another concern of<br />
opponents of the death penalty<br />
– that executions were cruel and<br />
inhumane.<br />
Rather than having his neck<br />
broken the instant the trapdoor<br />
opened, Bolton, allegedly, slowly<br />
strangled to death.<br />
And then there are the George<br />
George<br />
Stinney, 14,<br />
the youngest<br />
American ever<br />
to have been<br />
executed. A<br />
re-examination<br />
of his case<br />
determined he<br />
did not get a<br />
fair trial and his<br />
conviction was<br />
overturned.<br />
Stinney’s of this world.<br />
Stinney was only 14, and<br />
the youngest American to be<br />
executed (electric chair) in 1944<br />
for the murder of two white girls,<br />
aged seven and 11.<br />
His conviction was overturned<br />
in 2014 after it was re-examined<br />
by university law students. A<br />
court ruled he had not received a<br />
fair trial.<br />
A bit late for poor young<br />
George.<br />
– barry@starmedia.kiwi<br />
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