The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-06-28

PUBIIc EXECUTIONS There can be no
I question that the tome of public sentiments
being lowered by the publicity which attends
the execution of CRIMINALS And the number
of executions that have taken place of mtein
different portions of the community increases
this effect with amazing rapidity. In the
normal state ofthe human heart, the sightof
that which inficts pains is always viewed
with drcad-a sensibility, however, which, as
/ is we'll known. rapidly diminishes by a repe-
tition of the experience. In the case of the
public execution of criminals this fact is es-
pecially noticeable. The scenes which are
witnessed--the gallows- rope-thc strug-
giles of the victim-thc blaspheny, obscenity
and the coarse jokes--all are calculated not
only to render the heart callous to human
suffering, but to familiariZe the mind with
depravity and vice. Consequently. the ar
gument for making an execution public
that the sight will infuse wholesome terror
in the minds of evil doers-is entirely neu-
traliZed. In most parts of the United States,
the practice of public executions in theory
at least-has long been abandoned, but in
the British dominions it is still prevalent.
Public sentiment, however, on this subject
has been for several years changing. and the
recent executions before Newgate, in the very
heart of London, attended by robbery, as
sault, and horrible blasphemy. committed by
the brutalized crowds at the foot of the gal
ingly, a bill is now before the House of Com
mons providing for the execution of capital
punishment within prisons. By this bill it is
intended that the sentence of death which is
to be executed on prisoner shall take place
within the walls of the prison in which he is
at the time confined. The sheriff, surgeon,
chaplain, and iailer, together with such other
officers and persons as the sheriff may per-
sonally desire-are to be present at the execu-
ton. The sheriff may, also, if he sees fit,
admit justices and newspaper reporters.
When the sentence Of the law has been car
ried into effect, two certificates OF the fact
are to be drawn up-one for the surgeon to
sign, and the other for the sheriff, jailer, and
chaplain. Six hours after the execution, an
inquest is to be held, upon which, however,
no officer of the prison. or any prisoner, will
be allowed to sit. Printed copies, both of
the certificates and of the result of the in
quest, are then to be posted at the prison en-
trance and the original documents to be
sent to the Home Secretary.
1t will be seen that this new method ofad-
ministering capital punishment in the Brit
ish empire will, if adopted, be very similar
| to that which obtains in the United States.
In both cases, however, it is to be feared that
a large loop-hole is left whereby an execu-
ton becomes practically public exhibition.
This loophole is in the clause which allows
the sheriff to invite in all persons whom he
may wish to have present. Such, at least, is
| too often the case in the executions that oc-
cur among us, when the tickets given out to
"particular friends are so numerous as to
render abortivc, in great part, the design
which the law had in view. The terror of
the death penalty has been deprived of some
of its force in preventing crime, by the no
toriety which public executions give to
criminals. Many proofs exist of the actual
excitement in such cases of an ambition in
the minds of the depraved to become the
subjects of such public interest. Private ex-
ecutions are also affected in the same man
ner by sensational reports in the newspapers,
and accounts of the last hours and dying
speeches of the condemned. The death pen
atty is most to be dreaded when it is eXecut-
ed strictly in private, by the officers of the
law and jury of citizens, and the world on
ly learns the simple fact that the law has
done its terrible work, the criminal has suf-
fered its highest penalty in the solemnity
which should attend such a scene, without
noise, without public exhibition, without
becoming even the object of public curiosity.
We would not forbid the publication of &C
counts of executions, but it is certainly to be
wished that the press would aid the ends of
justice by depriving those accounts of their
sensational character, and giving details at
all, only the plain unvarnished truth in a
few words.-NeU York Journal Of Commerce.