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BRITISH COLUMBIA

Chuter Ede Doubts Guilt
Of Man He Sent to Gallows

ONDON, ENGLAND — The

House of Commons voted to con-

tinue capital punishment in Bri-
tain, despite an emotional appeal by
James Chuter Ede, who said he may
have sent an innocent man to the
gallows seven years ago.

Chuter Ede, schoolmaster, former
leader of the House and Laborite
home secretary, joined other Socialists
in asking for a five-year period without
capital punishment. But the House
overrode his plea, 245 to 214.

The man Chuter Ede allowed to be
hanged was Timothy Evans, 25,
charged with murdering his wife and
baby. He died for the second crime,
but all Britain was filled with doubt
when John Reginald Christie, the
mass murderer of Nottingham Gate,
confessed five years later he killed
Mrs. Evans.

Filled With Doubt

Chuter Ede was one of those filled
with doubt. He made it clear in the
House of Commons when he recalled
the hanging of Evans and the con-
fession of Christie that she was one

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of six women he strangled and sealed
in a wall of his house or buried under
a flowering bush in his backyard.

“I was the home secretary who
wrote on Evans’ papers ‘the law must
take its course’,” Chuter Ede said as
he began his plea for dropping the
death penalty.

The usual bustle of the Chamber
stopped. Members froze in their seats
and papers stopped rattling.

“Tf ever there was a clear case when
the papers came on my table that a
man was guilty, it was the case of
Evans,” he said.

“Evans was found guilty of the
murder of his infant daughter. He
was charged at the same time with
the murder of his wife, but since he
had been found guilty on the first,
the second case was never heard.

“He had protested that the man
who had murdered his wife was the
other man (Christie) living in the
same house. The evidence was over-
whelmingly against Evans.

“But then, years afterward, six

women’s bodies were found in that

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house and the other man admitted to
the murder of these six women.”

He paused and drew a deep breath
before he continued.

Facts Not Known

“If these facts had been known to
the jury at the time they might per-
haps have found Evans guilty of
murder in conjunction with Christie.
I doubt if they could have found
Evans guilty in other circumstances.”

His face flushed as he said:

“Today, I think that Evans’ case
shows, in spite of all that has been
done, that a mistake was possible and
that in the form in which the verdict
was actually given in a particular case
a mistake was made.”

He hesitated after those words, “a
mistake was made,” and continued.

“T hope that no further home secre-
tary, in office or after he has left
office, will ever have to feel that
although he did his best .. . that in
fact he sent a man who was not guilty
as charged to the gallows.”

He sat down, face in hands. * *

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Page Forty-three