The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-10-17

Important Presentment OF the GRAND
Jury-Ths Death Penalty Law Re-
buksa.
The Grand Jury made presentment to the
Court Of Oyer and Terminer yesterday, which
will be found in our columns to-day, of very
grave and important character. For some
years past the protection to human life afforded
by the law to the citizens Of this metropolis has
ness prevalent in the administration of criminal
Law, the ineficency of the Metropolitan Police
and the influence of politicians OF the lowest
and most degraded character upon the admi.
nistrators of Justice, there has been literally no
protection at all to tae lives of our citizens
against the assaults 0eothe rowdy, and high
wayman and the burglar. But it was left for
the last infamous Legislature to cap the climax
by the enactment of a statute which, according
to the clearest Interpretation that can be given
to it, permits the murderer to go free.
The decision of the Supreme Court in Mrs
Hartungs case, and the opinions of our most
eminent judges upon the death penalty Law OF
last session, leave it exceedingly doubtful
whether any punishment whatever can be in
ficted under it upon persons convicted Of muir
der In the first degree. We are glad to per
ceiye that the Grand Jury have taken cog
nizance Of this outrageous law in the same
condemnatory spirit in which we referred to it
of the time of its enactment 1t is, in plain
words, a premium upon murder, and demolishes
at once the only defence against the lawless
rufians Of the community by abolishing the
certain and speedy punishment for that class of
crime.
The Grand Jury efer to the number of cases
Of homicide which it was their duty to investi-
gate as alarming; and who can wo:der at
this when, by a bungling or corrupt
act Of the Legislature, the homicide
Is exempt from the extreme penalty
due to his offence and more than this by which
the power Of the Courts to punish him at all is
rendered exceedingly doubtful. The Grand
Jury point to the success Of the Fire Marshal in
ferreting out cases of arson and bringing the
offenders to justice as an example of what
might be done by similar officer charged with
the special duty of investigating cases Of homi-
eide; but does not that duty specially belong
to the Chief the Police Department and the
District Attorney? If these functionaries per-
formed their duties faithfully, does any one
suppose that citizens would be "assassinated in
their homes, or shot down in populous streets
as the Grand Jury remark, without any clue to
the murderers ever being obtained. We think
not. But the fact is that the administration OF
the law, whether preventive or retrbutive, is
SO disgracefully loose that the peaceful citizen
is at the mercy Of the rowdy and the rufian.
The death penalty law Of last session was
all that was required to give full and complete
efficacy to the reign Of terror which exists in
this metropolis, and for this law We are in
debted TO the republican Legislature, which,
while il imposed all kinds of burdens upon the
Empire City, robbed it of all power to govern
itself or protect itself against plumber
by corrupt officials from the interior and the
inroads Of crime from oil quarters. 1t has left
us to be protected" by "a police force over
whom our Chief Magistrate, the representative
of the people, has no control to have our pub
lie Offices filled by hungry spoilsmen from the
rural districts, and, last Of all, it has enacted
law which throws the shield Of protection and
impunity over every murderer whose crime i
atrocious enough TO entitle him to conviction
OF murder in the frst degree.