The hangman and the electric chair - Part 1

“You have heard it said: 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matthew 5: 38-39). The variation in interpretation of the Bible can be compared to the intense controversy surrounding the death penalty.

Advocates for the re-introduction of the death penalty would argue "an eye for an eye" is adequate justification for the return of the hangman. Accompanying this is a groundswell of opinion that prison does not appropriately exact society's revenge for murder and violent crime. In some cases that argument may be valid.

In 1962, Barry Gordon Hadlow was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of five-year-old Sandra Dorothy Bacon in Townsville, Queensland. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, serving 22 years before his release on parole in 1985. In May, 1990, nine-year-old Stacey Ann Tracy was found raped and murdered at Roma, Queensland, and Hadlow emerged as the main suspect. He was convicted and again sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder. The trial judge, Mr Justice  Shepardson, recommended Hadlow's papers be stamped NTBR - never to be released.

Hadlow is destined to die in prison, but there is a strong argument that had the death penalty been in effect at the time of the Bacon murder in 1962, Stacey Ann Tracy's life would have been spared in May 1990. Queensland abolished the death penalty in 1922.

In NSW in 1954, Leonard Keith Lawson was sentenced to death for the rape of two models. The sentence was later commuted to 14 years penal servitude. Lawson served seven years and was paroled in May 1961. In November 1961 6 months after being paroled, Lawson raped and murdered a 16-year-old schoolgirl, Jane Mary Bower, at Collaroy. He then drove south to Moss Vale, and next morning appeared at the chapel of the Church of England Girls Grammar School, where he waylaid teachers and students entering the church for morning prayer.

Lawson held the school hostage in a standoff with police who were surrounding the chapel. The headmistress, Jean Turnbull, grappled with Lawson, trying to wrestle the gun away from him. During the struggle, Lawson shot and killed 15-year-old Wendy Sue Luscombe before being overpowered by waiting police and charged with both murders.

At Sydney Supreme Court in July 1962 Mr Justice McClemmens sentenced Lawson to life imprisonment for the murders of Jane Mary Bower and Wendy Sue Luscombe.

In 1972, Lawson again featured prominently in the Sydney media, when he was duped by two long-serving prisoners at Parramatta jail into taking Sharon Hamilton, a singer and dancer who had performed at a concert inside the prison, hostage. On doing so, he was overpowered by the prisoners who had engineered the ruse. They were rewarded for "bravery" and immediately released from prison, while Lawson received another five years imprisonment. He died in Grafton Jail in 2003.

In Queensland, it has been argued the death penalty is the only viable means of deterring offenders from perpetrating violent crimes. Darren Osborne was released on parole in October, 1986, after serving four-and-a-half-years of a nine-year sentence for the rape of three girls in 1982. A week after his release, Shari Davis was kidnapped at knifepoint from a Brisbane carpark.

Ms Davis was forced to drive to secluded bushland at the rear of Goodna cemetery, bashed, and stabbed 12 times in the neck and body, before her throat was cut and she was left for dead. Although semi-conscious, she managed to crawl to the side of a road, where she was discovered 10 hours later. She was rushed to hospital, where she eventually recovered and identified her attacker as Osborne.

Osborne fled Queensland after the Davis abduction and attempted murder, but surfaced on November 27, 1986, raping a woman at knifepoint in the toilets of a McDonald's in Swanston St, Melbourne. He again re-surfaced in Western Australia on April 24, 1987, when he raped a 16-year-old girl at knifepoint in East Perth.

On May 5, 1987, Osborne abducted another woman at knifepoint from Albany, and forced her to drive to Mount Clarence, where he repeatedly raped her before fleeing the scene. Five days later he abducted twenty-three-year-old barmaid Susan Frost at knifepoint and forced her to a nearby carpark where he raped her and stabbed her repeatedly with a butcher's knife.

As well as the numerous stab wounds on the body, investigators found frenzied stab marks in the ground, where Osborne's knife had missed its target, indicating the ferocity of the attack, Shortly after the Frost murder, West Australian Police detained Osborne as he tried to flee the state aboard an interstate bus.

Osborne pleaded guilty to murder and abduction before West Australian Supreme Court Judge, Mr Justice Smith, who sentenced him to life imprisonment with the added direction: "You are sentenced to prison with strict security for the rest of your life. You should never be released until senility overtakes you." Osborne subsequently died inside the WA prison system.

The cases of Hadlow, Lawson and Osborne reinforce the argument that the death penalty stops killers re-offending. But capital punishment is also an irrevocable step within any legal system. And legal systems are not infallible.

Proponents of the death penalty point to child murder as a crime worthy of capital punishment, but as unpalatable as this crime may be, there is no guarantee a miscarriage of justice cannot occur.

After the disappearance of 10-year-old South Australian schoolgirl, Louise Bell, from her parents' home in the Adelaide suburb of Hackham West in January 1983, concerned parents demanded immediate action from the South Australian police.

A South Australian prisoner, Raymond John Geesing, was serving time in Adelaide Jail for an unrelated crime when he was charged with the abduction and murder of Louise Bell. The Crown case rested largely on evidence from four prisoner informants who had been in prison with Geesing and alleged he had confessed to them. Based on their evidence, Geesing was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

On April 12, 1985, the South Australian Court of Criminal Appeal unanimously upheld an appeal by Geesing. South Australian Chief Justice, Mr Len King, ruled that Geesing's 1983 trial had miscarried and the guilty verdict for the murder and abduction of Louise Bell was set aside. Chief Justice King said the prisoner informants were unreliable and untrustworthy witnesses.

One prisoner retracted his original statement. The evidence of another prisoner informant was declared inadmissible. The Court of Criminal Appeal ordered there be no retrial and Geesing walked to freedom after serving 17 months for a crime he had not committed.

The reintroduction of the death penalty in the US during 1976 also revealed a significant number of prisoners who suffered miscarriages of justice before being freed from prison. Twelve death row prisoners were exonerated, with DNA a significant factor in establishing their innocence:

• Earl Washington, of Virginia, sentenced to death in 1984, came within nine days of being strapped into the electric chair and executed for the rape and murder of Rebecca Williams, three years earlier. Washington was reprieved and served 16 years, 91/2 of them on death row, before DNA established his innocence. He was released from prison in 2000 and granted an absolute pardon.
• Kirk Bloodsworth, from Maryland, sentenced to death in 1984, served nine years before DNA established his innocence. He was released from prison in 1993.
• Rolando Cruz, Illinois, sentenced to death in 1985, served 10 years before DNA established his innocence. Released from prison in 1995.
• Alejandro Hernandez, Illinois, also sentenced to death in 1985, served 10 years before DNA established his innocence. Released from prison in 1995.
• Verneal Jimerson, Illinois, sentenced to death in 1985, served 11 years before DNA established his innocence. Released from prison in 1996.
• Dennis Williams, Illinois, sentenced to death in 1979, served 17 years before DNA established his innocence. Released from prison in 1996.
• Robert Lee Miller, Jr Oklahoma, sentenced to death in 1988, served 10 years before DNA established his innocence. Released from prison in 1998.
• Ronald Williamson, Oklahoma, sentenced to death in 1988, served 11 years before DNA established his innocence. Released from prison in 1999.
• Ronald Jones, Illinois, sentenced to death in 1989, served 10 years before DNA established his innocence. Released from prison in 1999.
• Ray Krone, Arizona, sentenced to death in 1992, served 10 years before DNA established his innocence. Released from prison in 2002.
• Charles Fain, Idaho, sentenced to death in 1983, served 18 years before DNA established his innocence. Released from prison in 2001.
• Frank Lee Smith, Florida, sentenced to death in 1986, served 14 years before DNA established his innocence. Smith died in prison before he was exonerated.

Part 2 of this article examines whether the death penalty is effective as a deterrent.