Majority of One for Abolition of Capital Punishment
In the house of commons Lieutenant Colonel Kenworthy asked leave to introduce a bill for abolition of capital punishment and substitute for the death penalty penal servitude for life. Subject to the existing powers of remission, the sentence was to be fixed with the qualification that, if a jury recommended a prisoner to mercy, the court of criminal appeal might substitute any less severe sentence. He had the support of members belonging to all the three parties. The proposal was not novel or revolutionary. The countries that had abolished capital punishment and the dates were as follows: Austria, 1918; Belgium, 1863; Finland, 1826; Denmark, 1892; Holland, 1870; Italy, 1889 (the reintroduction in recent years of the death penalty was only for political crime); Norway, 1905; Portugal, 1867; Roumania, 1864; Sweden, 1921; Argentina, 1922; Brazil, 1891; Colombia, 1910. Queensland abolished capital punishment in