Dancing On Air: Vengeance, Mercy and the Death Penalty in Newfoundland

On St. Patrck's Day, 1942, Herb Spratt, the youngest son of a prominent St. John's city councillor, murdered his girlfriend, Josephine O'Brien. A weak defense at a two-day trial in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland resulted in a guilty verdict, coupled with a strong recommendation for mercy. The Chief Justice pronounced a sentence of death on April 28th, 1942. Six years later, during a night of terror in the town of Norris Arm, Alfred Beaton stabbed his girlfriend, and shot to death another young woman. Beaton then rampaged through the town, but failed to find any other victims. Beaton was sent to trial on January 31, 1949, wherein the jury returned a guilty verdict without a recommendation for mercy. The judge imposed the death penalty. Eric Colbourne investigates the background of these two cases, cases which would ultimately result in the abolition of the death penalty in Newfoundland.