On 13 June 1965, Goddard told Harold Laski's brother, Neville Laski, that he was opposed to the jury's findings at his brother's libel action case, and that he believed his brother, but that Harold Laski did not make a good witness in court.
In 1948 backbench pressure in the House of Commons forced through an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill to the effect that capital punishment should be suspended for five years and all death sentences automatically commuted to life imprisonment.