The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-08-17
CONSTANCE KENT.

rem nrkable in criminal jurisprudence
1t was fiendish crime to which she
pleaded guilty, and the court sentenced
her to executions but the humanity OF
the Crown intsrposed, and the Queens
prerooative consigns her to one of the Pc
nal colonies for life. We hope this act
of clemency on the part of Queen Victo-
ria is not intended as rebuke TO the
American government for executing a
woman; though the probabilities are
that, had Mrs. Surratt escaped the hal.
ter, Constance Kent would have been
hanged. We would not for the world
.insinuate that England's sensibilities,
when woman is the object, are not far
| greater than our own; but have her
sovereigns not frequently permitted
gentle women, such as Lady Macbeth is
supposed to have been, to suffer the ex-
IRENE penalty of the law? And might
she not again have done so, but for the
sudden discovery thatas America had ex-
ecuted woman, and all old womandom
was Mortified thereat, an excellent OBJ
portunity was afforded to make all odious
comparison between the magnaninity
or civilization of England and that OF
| America?
As the crime to which this fiend
pleaded guilty-prompted by an unjust
| and sleepless conscience to make O full
confession-was committed some five
years ago, and as the main facts are not
likely to be fresh in the minds of our
readers, the particulars may not be unin-
teresting. The tendency of courts, ju-
ries, executives, and the people, seems
now to be in favor of establishing a new
principle in legal liabilities. That is,
that man and woman are not upon an
| equalityin law. Nomatter how atrocious
or fiendlsh the crime a woman may
commit, she is not to be commensurate
ly punished, or punished at all, just as
the caprice OF those in power may deter
mine; while man, unfortunate man,
finds no sympathy anywhere, particu.
iarly if he be poor man. Wedont ex-
pect to change these notions of legal ac-
countability, nor do we know that we
would five could; for after all, it may
DC d kind of compliment to the sterner
sex to be told that they alone are ac-
countable beings, while the weaker ves-
sells are the insane and irresponsible.
But let us see what Constance Kent did
10 commend her to clenlency. We take
the following from the New York Com
R3ereiaf Adoertiser !:
The plea oil guilty presented by Miss Constance
Kent for the murder OF her little brother of which we
have news by the English papers, will probably mitigate
the sentenceof death which has been pronounced upon
her and abate somewhat of the severity of pubic op.
ION In reference to the horrible crime which she acknow.
lodges TO haze committed.
"The case, however, will long stand out as most re.
msrkabe one in the annals of crime There appears to
De alwaysa sort OF popularity or idiosyncray In every
criminal act and this seems to stand alone for it's
strange and unaccountable developments No human
mind could have predicted that shocking and atrocious
murder could have originated from those ial affections
that are the finest and purest In the human heart We
can probably know the strange silent by
which these feelings became perverted in Miss Kent un
til they at last eliminated in the murder of her brother
1t belongs only to Shakespeare to depict the transaction
from thoughtto action, which made young LADY, care
iuiy and delieaely reared mbrue her hands In bro
thers blood In order to rival in her fathers aft
ecuons ana win back the love which she jeaousy fam
cied she had lost --
1.-THE murder 1t will be remembered was committed
ave years ago She was then only sixteen years of are
hte ooy the child Of her father by second wife
vas taken outof the bed In which he was sleepnp with