The only way to destroy a criminal is by reforming the man who is a criminal. To destroy his bodily life is nothing but a stupid blunder. When the physical life of a criminal is cut short by this summary and unnatural means, we do not bring to an end thereby the evil passions which prompted the crime. And, having no longer a bodily tenement, they must wander abroad to prey upon the community and inspire fresh deeds of horror in weak and unbalanced natures whom they obsess. In view of this fact, the folly of capital punishment is more glaring than ever.
Capital punishment is tantamount to a repudiation of the divine nature of man.
Surely it is our duty and our privilege to be the agents of divine justice and mercy, and to exert to the utmost our god-given powers in the endeavor to assist our fallen brother to his feet. It is well within the power of existing governments to provide means whereby murderers, as well as other criminals, can be isolated in institutions where they can be humanely treated as patients or people of unsound mind. And this must be made part of a general campaign of educative and remedial treatment of crime outside prison walls. This process of first carefully manufacturing criminals and then killing them is an insult to our intelligence and culture. Katherine Tingley and party with Arizona Governor George P. Hunt, who abolished capital punishment in his state.