§ MR. MACNEILL (Donegal, Smith)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General whether his attention has been directed to the grave defect in the Criminal Law whereby, under the provisions of 24 and 25 Vic., c. 100, s. 2, the Court is compelled to pronounce sentence of death upon every conviction of murder, and consequently in cases such as "Regina v. Wark," in which the circumstances preclude the possibility of the infliction of the death penalty; and whether, having regard to the fact that from 1824 till 1861 the sentence of death was not pronounced but simply recorded in cases in which there was a certainty that the death penalty would not be inflicted, the Government will introduce legislation by which the Court will have the discretion, in cases of conviction for murder, of either pronouncing the sentence of death or of merely recording that sentence?
§ THE ATTORNEY-GENERALI am fully alive to the objections which exist to the pronouncement of the sentence of death under circumstances in which there is no reasonable probability of the sentence being carried into effect. The matter is one of very great importance, and I must ask my honourable and learned Friend to address any further question to my right honourable Friend the Home Secretary.