New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-01-19

carefully and humanely exercising the pardon'ns
noxer in some CAGES A youpg man, mere boy IN
fact was tried for burning barn, and after q nard
aud long trial, was convicted. That DC eoln,in'0o
the ofense there doubt, but az 10 tne degree
of guilt which attached TO il, there were varloss
oninons. The Judge, before passing sentence.
made some inquiries a. 10 the state OF OPINION IN
the place where the ofense was committed, and
was Told by one whose opportunities OF knowing
were good that the people would consider
sentence of Imprisonment for three months not an
unfair, or too easy one. " hree months - ex-
claimed the Judge; three derils do you suppose
~ am going through all this fuss to sentence him
81 only three months 2" So be gave him three
years Making defendant suffer for the obstinaey
Of his defense is something new, but not unpar-
aleed. An English Justice, who was made the
subject Of one OF FonblsDque's scOrching leading
articles in The london Eldmin6r, addressed
prisoner thus: - You, George Hearson, have
a. added 10 the enormity of your first crime that
" Of setting up an alibi." If this is 10 be the
mode Of procedure the safest way Will De to plead
guilty, whether guilty or not.
Somewhat incompatible with the advice to make
laws equal and puniskments mild and certain, Is
the suggestion which has been made to the Gov
ernor by certain officers of the law, that the crime
OF killing police officer, or the warden or other
keeper Of prison, even though il be not commit
ted under circumstances OF extreme atroclty or
cruelty, or With deliberately premeditated malice
afOrethougbt, shall be punished with death, while
the same crime, committed upor any other person,
shall be punished only BY imprisonment for life.
This is practically recommendation to restore IN
a degree the old uncertain law, and if the Legs.
lature accedes to it, the result will be that
now and then man who kills an Officer
will be hanged for il, but most of them
will escape altogether. Everything goes
TO prove this, but the class of men who are manly
interested are such fools that they cannot see 1t.
Niece, who was tried for killing the Deputy
Warden of the State Prison, came near escaping
under the old law, the first jury which tried him
having failed to agree. In the recent case OF
McNuty on the first trial. half the jurors insisted
on finding verdict of guilty Of murder in the first
degree; the other half refused to consent. On the
second trial, another disagreement would unques-
tOnaby have been the result, had not the ex-
tremists yielded; and it is quite likely that the
Attorney General would have been compelled to
abandon the prosecution. Under the old law, with
q charge from the Chief Justice that the offense
was murder and punishable by death, it is almost
certain that there could have been no conviction
for that Ofense, and the culprit would have gone
clear. j trust that the Legislature will pause be-
fore they consent to even partial repeal OF the
present humane and effective statute. They have
taken a step in the right direction. Let them not
be instigated by csmorous policemen or Wardens
of prsODs-men, unfortunately, not the best judges
of the true mode of dealing with crme-tO take
any backward step. The true hangman," said
Sir William Meredith, " is the member of parlia-
" ment-he who frames the bloody law is answer
" able for the blood thai is split under 1t"