Murder and Mercy
,In Nine Troubled Years, which Collins are publishing on Monday, Lord Templewood makes some interesting reflections on the Royal Prerogative. During his period of office as Home Secretary 397 murders became known to the police. 133 of the murderers committed suicide and 71 were declared insane. Of the cases referred to him, 24 were reprieved and four found insane upon further inquiry; only 19 murderers were hanged. Small though this number was, Lord Templewood points out how difficult it is for a Home Secretary to be sure that he is right in making the irrevocable decision to withhold a reprieve. It is made ' without the calling of witnesses, without seeing the accused, and without any of the publicity that is one of the chief safeguards of British justice.' The Home Secretary has not been present at the trial, is burdened with many other duties and cares, and yet has to decide (within at most a few days and on the basis of information which, however complete and judicious, is inevitably secondhand) whether or not a human life is to be extinguished. He concludes that as long as there is a death penalty—it is not clear how far his doubts on this subject have carried him—the system of exercising the Royal Prerogative (in which the Sovereign plays no direct part) is probably best left as it is. One cannot help feeling that, however seldom it results in injustice to the condemned man, it must always be unfair to the Home Secretary.
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