Letters

Clarifying executions

As the author of a recently published book advocating the return of capital punishment in New Zealand, I read your article on the Samoan assassina tion with considerable interest. Unfor tunately there were a number of errors in the sidebar story regarding the possi ble execution of Mr Kamu’s killers.

Firstly, the death penalty is not the mandatory sentence for murder in Tonga; it is an alternative to Life imprisonment. Which sentence is imposed is at the discretion of the sen

tencing Judge, and the King must

approve all executions. Secondly, the last execution - a double execution of two murderers - was in 1982 and not 1978.

Finally, you refer to the execution of “Walter” Bolton in 1957 in New Zealand as being described as a very unpleasant affair. James Bolton was indeed the last person hanged in New Zealand, and eyewitness accounts vary greatly as to the manner of his death, specifically whether or not he died of strangulation.

You mention the British Royal Com mission on capital punishment in your article. If your writer had read the Com mission’s report, he would have known that the Commission unreservedly accepted the evidence of Albert Pierre point, the most famous British execu tioner of the 20th century. Pierrepoint was responsible for the death by hang ing of about 700 people.

Pierrepoint told the Commission that in all of those executions not a sin gle one resulted in death by other than a broken neck. Lurid tales of decapita tions and strangulation are frequently used by persons opposed to capital pun ishment in order to influence the debate. They are untrue, and have been since the “long drop” method of hang ing - as practised by Britain and New Zealand - was introduced in the late 19th Century. It is perfectly correct that to ensure instant death by a broken neck

the hangman must be well trained and skilled in his task.

David Garrett,

Nuku 'alofa, Tonga