The hangman and the electric chair - Part 2

England abolished the death penalty in 1966, but the deterrent value of the noose in murder and violent crime still engenders heated debate in all sections of the community.

Jesse Strang was publicly hanged at Albany, New York, on August 24, 1857. One of the witnesses to the execution was Levi Kelley, a prosperous farmer from Cooperstown. Strang's execution made such a profound impression on Kelley that he returned to Cooperstown and remarked to neighbours he did not believe anyone could commit murder after witnessing an execution, for fear of being hanged themselves.

Ten days later Kelley shot and killed one of his tenants. Barely four months after he had witnessed Strang's execution, Kelley was hanged on December 28, 1857.

George Swearington was also aware of the deterrent value of the death penalty. As Sheriff of Allegheny County, Maryland, US, Swearington had personally hanged several convicted felons. He was aware of the terror they experienced when not spared a merciful death by having their necks broken, but instead strangled to death on the gallows. Despite his own intimate knowledge of judicial retribution for murder, George Swearington was hanged on October 2, 1829 for murdering his wife.

Another who was aware of the implications of the death penalty and its deterrent value was prominent American lawyer, J. Samuel McCue, of Charlottesville, Virginia. McCue had acted in capital murder cases, both as defence attorney and prosecutor. On February 10, 1905, J. Samuel McCue was hanged in Charlottesville for the murder of his wife.

At the time of McCue's execution in Virginia, Charles Justice was an inmate electrician at the Ohio State Penitentiary and was assigned the task of installing the electric chair in that institution. The significance of the electric chair's installation and the implication of the death penalty as a deterrent to murder were obvious.

Charles Justice was eventually released on parole. A short time later he was accused of killing a police officer, convicted and sentenced to death for murder. On October 27, 1911, Charles Justice was executed in the same electric chair he had constructed and wired at the Ohio State Penitentiary.

In Australia, Ronald Ryan attained the dubious honour of being the last man hanged on February 3, 1967. Ryan was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a Victorian prison warder during an escape from Pentridge Prison with another man, Peter Walker.

Walker received a life sentence for his part in the killing, and another murder he committed while on the run. Walker was eventually released from prison, but Ryan suffered his fate at the end of the hangman's noose.

Claims the Ryan case was fraught with political chicanery, and the government of the day, in particular Premier Sir Henry Bolte, wanted a scapegoat to appease the Victorian Prison Officer's Association still persist. Although Victoria abolished capital punishment in 1976, the controversy surrounding Ryan's execution still smoulders.

The Australian legal system is not immune from the same miscarriages of justice experienced in countries that retained the death penalty. But if the death penalty had still been a sentencing option under Australian law these people would, in all probability, have been executed for murder:

• New South Wales, 1947. Frederick McDermott was convicted of murder. He served seven years before a Royal Commission established his innocence. He was released from prison and granted a pardon for wrongful imprisonment.
• South Australia, 1978. Edward Charles Splatt was convicted of murder. He served six years before a Royal Commission established his innocence. He was released from prison and granted a pardon for wrongful imprisonment.
• NSW, 1979. Three men known as the Ananda Marga Trio -  Paul Alister, Ross Dunn and Timothy Anderson were convicted of conspiracy to murder. They served seven years before a judicial inquiry into their convictions, conducted by Mr. Justice Wood in 1985, concluded they were innocent. They were released from prison and granted unconditional pardons.
• NSW, 1980. Douglas Harry Rendall was convicted of murder. Rendall served nine years before a judicial inquiry into his conviction concluded he was innocent. Rendall was released from prison and granted an unconditional pardon.
• Northern Territory, 1982. Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murder. Served four years before a Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by Mr Justice Trevor Morling concluded she was innocent. Lindy Chamberlain was released from prison, compensated for wrongful imprisonment and granted an unconditional pardon.
• Queensland, 1983. Barry Mannix was accused of murdering his father at Surfers Paradise. After allegations Queensland police fabricated Mannix's confession to the murder, three other men were arrested and confessed to the crime. Barry Mannix was immediately released from prison.
• Queensland, 1984. Kelvin Condren was convicted of murder. He served six years before the High Court of Australia and the Queensland Court of Criminal Appeal cast serious doubts on the conviction and his alleged confession. After examining the evidence, Queensland Attorney-General Deane Wells recommended Condren's release from prison. Condren was set free in 1990.
• NSW, 1990. Roger Graham Bawden, surrendered himself to Queanbeyan police and confessed to a murder he committed in 1973. Another man, Johann Ernst Siegfried (Ziggy) Pohl, had been convicted of the murder and had already served over ten years in prison. The murder of Kum Yee "Joyce" Pohl at Queanbeyan became the subject of a special judicial inquiry which cleared Ziggy Pohl of the murder. Pohl was freed from prison and granted an unconditional pardon.