The Dead Won't Lie Down
By LESLIE HALE, MP
MR. G. K. CHESTERTON has somewhere pointed out that the first emotion of the murderer may be honest indig- nation with the not easily disposable corpse. The Home Office seems to take a similar view of those condemned to death, if doubts about their guilt arise later. There are obvious reasons for the view that if it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly. None wish to prolong unnecessarily the agony of the condemned. Mr. Caryl Chessman who has completed the equiv- alent of a life sentence between verdict and execution is an unique example even of the American way of life. Never- theless, in his book on the Christie case, M. Andre Mure has a warning chapter on 'Hate Grimm:Nue at lenieur francaise' which suggests that the British Way is not necessarily the best; and some recent events seem to justify his criticisms. Nor has the Home Office always shown speed in making amends when owing to the haste mistakes arc made.
That they have been made, is not in doubt. Edmund Galley, tried and con- victed in 1836 for the brutal murder of a farmer on Dartmoor, declared that he had never been within one hundred miles of Devonshire until brought there in custody. It was true. A short respite of execution permitted the Home Secretary to order the Chief Magistrate of London to collect further evidence; but doubts were sufficient only to permit the sen- tence to be commuted to transportation for life. Galley found the real criminal had preceded him to Australia, and over forty years later a lively debate, and a threat to divide the House, forced the grudging grant of a free pardon by a Home Secretary—who had earlier naively intervened to say 'Galley is very happy.' After a change of Government £1,000 compensation was paid.
While Pelizzioni was awaiting exe- cution for murder, the Negretti of the day (leaving Zambra for the nonce) easily discovered Mogni; the man the police had failed to trace, and the owner of the weapon they possessed but failed to produce at the trial. A respite was ordered on the eve of execution; Mogni was put on trial; Pelizzioni gave evidence for the prosecution; and Mogni was convicted of manslaughter. The dif- ficulty of having two men convicted of the same crime was resolved by ordering the trial of Pelizzioni on the second indictment remaining on the file: that of attempt to murder. He was acquitted, and then pardoned.
In the Maybrick case the Home Secre- tary, taking the burden upon his own inadequate shoulders, commuted the sentence to one of penal servitude for life on the astonishing ground that there was reasonable doubt as to whether Maybrick had been murdered at all.
In the infamous case of Oscar Slater the strongest representations were made for the victim by an able and gallant police officer named Trench. Invited by the Scottish Office to submit his reasons, he employed a friendly solicitor to pre- pare the statement and was dismissed the force for communicating secret informa- tion to the solicitor! He was later viciously and unsuccessfully prosecuted on a trumped-up charge. The Scottish Office saw no reason to intervene, on behalf of either Trench or Slater, and Slater's tardy vindication, under proce- dure necessitating a special Act of Parlia- ment, came long after Trench was dead.
Yet in spite of such cases there is no statutory provision to deal with them: Instead, a variety of ad hoc quasi- judicial expedients have been tried— without much success. Since the war two Home Office investigations have, for dif- ferent reasons, aroused considerable controversy.
When Mr.' Scott Henderson was appointed to investigate the confession of Christie to the murder of Beryl Evans, his task was necessarily invidious for Christie was awaiting inevitable execu- tion and Timothy John Evans had long since been hanged. Evans, who gave him- self up for 'disposing of the body' and confessed in custody to the murder of his wife and child, withdrew his con- fession at his trial and accused Christie. Strong points against Evans were Christie's good character, his lack of motive and his physical inability to carry a body, and Evans was hanged. Too late, it was established that six women had been murdered on the same premises by Christie, a sexual pervert, two before and four after the killing of Beryl Evans. Three bodies, at least, had been con- cealed in a similar manner and in the same place, as hers. Christie did not even deny responsibility but was content to say that he could not remember.
The nearest precedent was the 'brides in the bath' case, where there was no real evidence against George Joseph Smith except the revelation that the same 'accident' had happened to three of his wives in identical circumstances: Smith was convicted because the jury thought the triple coincidence impossible. But Mr. Scott Henderson, after a week of investigation, mostly in secret, did not follow their example: he reported that he 'had no doubt' that Evans was guilty of the murder of his wife and child. On 22 January, 1947, David Ware, in prison, confessed to the murder of a prostitute on a bomb-damaged site in Manchester; a crime for which Walter Rowland lay under sentence of death. The Court of Criminal Appeal having refused leave to call Ware, Mr. H. C. Jolly, KC, was appointed to conduct an investigation and report. It took place in secret. Ware withdrew his confession. Mr. Jolly reported there was no reason for interference. Ware's original con- fession had been singularly detailed and convincing and had described his stay- ing in Stockport at a lodging house after the murder. The register had been in- spected by police officers after Ware's confession. It confirmed his statement but had been destroyed before Mr. Jolly investigated. Working necessarily in haste Mr. Jolly unfortunately referred in his report to evidence convincing him which clearly corroborated Ware's confession and was inconsistent with its withdrawal Rowland was hanged without delay. In 1951 Ware gave himself up for a second crime. 'I have killed a woman. I don't know what is the matter with me. keep on having an urge to hit women on the head.' He was found guilty of attempted murder but insane.
There is no reason why the collecting of evidence of innocence should not be as diligently carried out as the collecting of evidence of guilt. In 1954 for example, a Home Office inquiry conducted with singular zeal and ability by two senior metropolitan police officers established the innocence of three men who had been convicted on honest but mistaken evi- dence of identity and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. But there would rarely be a need for such ad hoc inquiries if the Court of Criminal Appeal did not take so narrow and legalistic a via' of its own functions. In refusing to hear the evidence of Ware, the Court sur- prised many and stultified itself: for it showed that the limited rights of appeal, grudgingly and tardily conceded by Parliament, have since been narrowed by the Court itself.
There are sound reasons against too wide an extension of appellate powers, but there can be none against the grant of enabling powers in cases where it has become manifest that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred. In anY such case the Court should have the fullest power of hearing fresh evidence, and, where appropriate, of- ordering new trial.
Nor is there any reason why the dead should not be vindicated. In the worst days of lettres de cachet, the case of Jean Calas, the Toulouse cloth dealer, broken on the wheel for the murder of his son, was brought to the Grand Council of the King at Versailles, who referred it to the Forty Judges of France for Calas's vindication. There iS still time for justice to be done to the memory of Timothy John Evans.
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