Chamber Rejects Bill for Abolition of Death Penalty

The state house of Representatives yesterday rejected the bill that would have virtually abolished capital punishment in Massachusetts. The bill is now permanently dead unless Gov. Endicott Peabody '42 chooses to present it again in a special message to the legislature.

The House's roll-call vote came on a motion to reconsider its action last Wednesday in striking the enactment clause from the bill, thus killing it. The vote yesterday was 124-103, the same as last week.

The defeat of the bill was a serious setback for Gov. Peabody and Democratic leaders in the House, who had staked their prestige on its passage, At a news conference after the vote, however, the governor predicted that Massachusetts would eventually eliminate the death penalty.

Epic Fight

He paid high compliments to those who backed him in the "epic-making fight" and said that "the true gainers" were the citizens of the true gainers" were the citizens of the state, who "now are much better informed on the issue."

After the vote, Rep. Mary B. Newman (R-Cambridge) said that there was "still plenty of time" to pass an abolition bill in future years. She said that the outcome of another vote would be the same unless something "demonstrated with unmistakable clarity" the evils of capital punishment.

Mrs. Newman said that this year's bill, however, had forced "a number of people to examine what they really think" about the subject. An abolition bill will be passed within two to four years, she predicted, since the number of legislators favoring abolition has grown steadily.