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COMMENT: STATEMENT: California has an automatic appeal to the State Supreme Court in all death penalty cases. Between 1942-57, 180 cases involving death were appealed, Twenty-five of these were reversed.On retrial, only three of these were re-sentenced to death. Six were dismissed or completely acquitted. Bufiles contain no information pertaining to this matter. STATEMENT: The article points out that execution for murder or rape is the safest kind of criminal risk. In 1941, there were 6, 990 cases of murder in - the United States and 119 executions. In 1957, there were 7,000 cases of murder and 65 executions. COMMENT: A review of the Bureau's Uniform Crime Reports statistics and the "National Prisoner Statistics" issued by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in February, 1960, reflected that in 1941 there were 7,562 murdexs and 123 executions. In 1957, there were 6, 920 cases of murder and 65 persons we executed. STATEMENT: A report by a group of Quakers in California disclosed that ina 10-year period, 342 convicted first-degree murderers were paroled from California prisons. They served an average of 12 years and 5 months. Ofthese, — only 37 violated their parole in any way and only 9 were sent back to prison. . Further, from 1955- 57, parolees in California committed a total of 17 murders. Only one murder was committed by a paroled murderer. COMMENT: Bufiles contain no information concerning this Quaker report. Brown feels that revocation of the death penalty alone is not enough and suggests a threefold plan: (1) Segregate irresponsible or permanently viciou criminals with irrevocable life sentences, (2) set up modern correctional faciliti for those who can be reformed and redeemed, and (3) launch a vigorous prograr of law enforcement and crime prevention, putting faith in alertness and hard work rather than relying on terror. -1-