The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-04-06

CAPITAL PUNrsHxENr-THE ABOLITION Bill
ABANDoNKD.--W see that the promoters of the
bill for the abolition Of capital punishment
have been obliged to take the back track, and
to substitute Mr.. Finch's measure, from con-
viction of the improbability of getting the orr
ginal one through the Senate. The new bill
possesses some features to recommend 1t; and,
could it be stripped Of others which are objec-
tionable, would be an improvement on the pre-
sent law. 1t limits the punishment Of death to
treason, murder, and arson in the first degree
1t classifies under this head all murders perpe-
trated by means Of poison, or by lying in wait
or by other kinds of wilful, deliberate and pre-
meditated killing or which are committed in the
preparation of or in the attempt to perpetrate
any arson, rape, robbery or burglary, or in the
attempt to escape from imprisonment All
other kinds of murder are to be deemed MUIR
der in the second degree, and to be punished
by imprisonment for life.
We approve of the principle of legal gradu-
alton of capital offences, for we believe that
more criminals escape through the absence of
discriminating power in the law in this regard
than from almost any other cause. Juries are
naturally reluctant to apply the same degree
of punishment to different degrees of the same
offence, and they prefer letting off the offender
altogether to confounding in the common death
penalty the man who murders from sordid
motives and he who kills in hot blood. We
helieye that if the definitions of capital offences
adopted in the bill under consideration were
to become law, salutary change would soon be
noticed in our criminal statistics. Everything
that tends to render punishment sure and in
evitable must, as matter Of course, contribute
to diminish capital offences, as well as every
other species Of crime.
The provision that no execution shall take
place within twelve months from the time of
sentence, defeats, however, whatever good
there is in the bill 1t has been justly observed,
by high legal authority, that it is Of the
greatest Importance that the punishment should
follow the crime as early as possible; that
the prospect of qualification or advantage
which tempts man to commit the
offence should instantly awake the at
tendant idea of punishment Delay Of
execution serves only to separate these
ideas; and then the execution itself affects
the minds of the spectators rather as terrible
sight than as the necessary consequence Of
trsnsgression. A delay such as is accorded by
this measure does more: it renders the escape
of the criminal next to certain. With the OPP
portuniies afforded by 1.-THE new trials and
appeals allowed by our laws in criminal cases,
and the political and other influences which
can be brought to bear in favor of the accused
it would in fact be impossible for murderer
ever to receive the punishment due to his de-
serts. This, we take it, is the main object of
the bill As the opponents Of capital punish
ment find that they have at present no chance
of getting their pet project adopted, they seek
to effect indirectly, through this measure, the
purpose they have in view. The bill has
passed the Assembly by large majority, but
it is to be hoped that the Senate will divest it
of its Objectionable clauses, retaining only
those which are admitted to be an improve
ment on the law as it now stands.
TT