The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-18
CITY TOPICs.

| 1t is fast becoming q question whether, ever
again, jury can be obtained in this city which
will pronounce man guilty of murder. without
some palliation of the verdict. There have been
three men tried recently for murder, none of whom
were declared guilty by the several juries without
conditional clauses. John Conroy, accused of the
murder of Capt. Lowe, of the ship Polar Star, was
proved to have slipped up behind his victim, stab.
bed him, and then tried his best to escape The
defense set up was temporary insanity, founded
upon the fact that, previous to the killing, Conroy
was frequently moody, and often paced the deck
alone, declining companionship. The verdict was
guilty. with Recommendation to the mercy Of
the court" Samuel Thompson was tried for kill
ing Willard l.. Call on board the ship St. James,
just off the mouth of the Mississippi river. The
testimony proved an almost uuprovoked homi-
eide. The defense was that the deed was com.
mitted within the jurisdiction of the Louisiana
State courts, and therefore beyond that of the U.
S. District Court, in which it was tried. But this
was overruled, and the jury decided that the court
was competent to try the case, and yet brought in
verdict of "gulty, with q recommendation to
the mercy of the court" Some time ago little
girl was outraged near Csrrolton, then murdered.
and the body, partially tied up in q sack. thrown
into the river. The body was recovered, crcum-
stantial evidence pointed strongly to a negro
named Milton. He was arrested and his cabin
searched, and in it were found his clothes
stained with blood, and In his vest pocket
were the earrings and handkerchief of the dead
girl, her basket being hid under his bed. While
in prison awaiting his trial, our readers will
doubtless remember, some unknown parties
broke into the jail and shot him, leaving him for
dead. He recovered, however, aud on wednes.
day was tried. The Jury In his case too, rendered
-e~.-ssvs--guury, WITHOUT cuprtaT punlsnment.u
Now these three cases we're all aggravated ones.
In the latter only was there the slightest difficulty
in proving the fact, while here the circumstantial
evidence was so strong to amount to certainty,
and yet, In no instance did the jury find the par
ties deserving of the death penalty. Now, we con.
tend that il it is going to be a dead letter upon
The statute book, better let the laws which
demand capital punishment be at once abol.
ished. Better let men confess that they are
unwilling under any circumstances to exact
blood for blood than to 60 through the
farce of finding men guilty of the highest
crime on the statute books and then recon-
mending them to the mercy of the court. If the
whole spirit Of the nineteenth century is. as some
men claim It is, in opposition to the iDfiction of
capital punishment, then let the death penalty b
formally expunged from the code of laws. But
while il does exist, while the law demands tina.
whosoever sheds mans blood by man shall his
blood be shed, let the guilty suffer the merited
punishment. We say this in no spirit of modern
Drsconism, and with no desire to prejudice the |
opinions of any man, but simply to utter our pro-
test at the gsring disregard Of law and neglect of
their plain duty whhh have characterized the &C.
ton of the jures on the several trials cited above
The readers Of the CRESCENT have doubtless ere
now heard of the creation of steam man. The
first one was made at Newark, N. Y, and was
very imperfect. But we are told there is now one
in existence which works surprisingly well. 1t il
Q frame work Of iron In the form of Q man, in
which are machinery, boiler and furnace. The
works so that the legs of the machine
are made to move ss do those of man, and
motion simisr 10 running ID produced. The man