Caryl Chessman
1N his article this week Richard Rovere explains that capital punishment is not an emotive issue in the US because nobody is in favour of it. There is no John Gordon to argue (as he did in the Sunday Express this week) that what he calls 'justice' should be done more quickly, and with less legal quibbling, even if it does mean an occasional mistake ('. . . what do we do? Say "Sorry" and forget it.'). But there is also, appar- ently, no Patrick O'Donovan to argue (as he did in the Observer this week) that 'compassion for the man nearly twelve years in the death row in San Quentin is reflex in a civilised man.' And obnoxious though the hanging brigade in this country may be, it is possible that the current American apathy is even more deplorable. The revelation that a stay was granted not because twelve years under sentence of death is punish- ment enough, and not because of any doubts over the morality of the death penalty, but because President Eisenhower might encounter a hostile reception from some students in Uruguay, is an in- teresting reflection on the new droit administratif. Perhaps next time they will arrange for the Presi- dent to postpone any projected foreign tour until a few days after the date fixed for the execution?
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