peroration_.

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE: ... and there is no need to recapitulate here the
arguments for and against this point of law, which we heard in the long
and extremely fair summing up at the trial of the appellant at the
Central Criminal Court. The case was clearly put to the jury; and it is
against sentence of death for these two murders that the prisoner now
appeals. Which means that the last stage of this important and
extremely horrible case has now been reached. On a later page in the
summing up, the learned judge said this ... (_turning over
papers_) ... "This case has, through the demeanour of the prisoner
in the witness-box, obtained the most widespread and scandalous
publicity, which I would beg you most earnestly, members of the jury,
to forget." I cannot help thinking that the deplorable atmosphere of
sentimental melodrama which has pervaded this trial has made the
_theatre_ a more fitting background for it than a court of law;
but we are in a court of law, nevertheless, and the facts have been
placed before the court. A remarkable and in my opinion praiseworthy
feature of the case has been that the sanity of the prisoner has never
been called into question; and, like the learned judge, the Court must
dismiss as mischievous pretence the attitude of this young man who
stands convicted of two brutal murders in cold blood. This case has,
from beginning to end, exhibited no feature calling for sympathy; the
evidence has on every point been conclusive, and on this evidence the
jury have convicted the appellant. In the opinion of the Court there is
no reason to interfere with that conviction, and this appeal must be
dismissed.

_The chords of solemn music are heard again, and the stage gradually
darkens. A few seconds later the music merges into the sound of church