Litchfield enquirer., 1870-12-22
POISONED LIQUORS.

An important case under the new statute
 forbidding the sale of poisoned liquors,
 was tried at Norwich, lately. After trial in the lower court, the case was reviewed in the Supreme Court. and returned to the Superior Court for sentence, which was pronounced as follows:
 NeW London County. Superior Comt-No
 0eDsber Term. l870--State Us. Henry C. San ton.-The defendant at & former term of tic court was found guilty of keeping for sale intoxicating liquors which were a9ulterated with deleteaious ingredients, l ID violation of the statute4in such case pro. vlded. The case went to the supreme court upon a motion for new trial, which motion having been denied, it remains for
 this court now to pronounce sentence up- on the conviction.
 A wide range of punishment is provided by the statute, from small fine on the one hand to fine of $500 and six months imprisonment on the other hand. The counsel for the prosecution press earnestly for the application to tho defendant of the extreme punishment authorized bv the law, claiming that the offence is heinous one, that 1t prevails to an alarming extent throughout the state, and that extensive combinations have been formed to oppose and prevent the enforcement of the law.
 lnasmuch as th,s is one of the first con- victiOns under the statute, and as this case is novel and important will file with the clerk brief statement of the considera- tions by which I have been governed in deciding upon the appropriate sentence to be rendeied. And first, although the stat ute upon which the prosecution is founded IS of recent date, and the act charged against the defendant was not until recent y treated as crime. yet now that atten- tion has been directed 70 the subject, all must, think. unite in regarding the de- tendant guilty of grave offence against the pubic health. The liquors keut by him for sale were very impure and clearly deleterious within the meaning of the stat ute. It appears upon the testimony of Professor Sllliman that tue article sold as port wine contained forty five grains to the gallon of oxide of lead, and the whiskey tiit, grains of lead to the gallon. The de- fendant probably did not know how i'm, pure the liquors were, but the supreme court has decided that inasmuch as ID sell Ing at all he Was engaged in traffic made unlawful by statute, he was bound at his peril to see that the liquors which he sold were not poisonous
 Hind no difficulty therefore in conclu- ding that the offence committed by the defendant is grave one, and must be pun sel for the prosecution that it may be well to inflct 8 punishment sufficiently. severe to Call the attention of all who are selling liquors contrary to law, to the perils thev incur, If the liquors they sell are impure and poisonous, and to call the attention of wrong doers in like manner with the de- fendant offending, to the serious nature of the offence.
 But It cannot be denied that there are some circumstances of mitigation in this particular case, first, that the crime was the result of heedlessness rather than of intentional malice or wrong: second. in the fact that the defendant did not profess --as druggists do, and as some other deal CTS in liquors do, to keep for sale liuuors of more than usual purity. Indeed, being as the defendant was, the keeper of sa- loon connected with billiard tables and ten npin alleys, his customers were not of the class requiring or expecting the choi- cest and most attractive liquors, and it does l not appear that the defendant either ex- pressly or by implication professed skill as druggist, apothecary or chemist.
 Under these circumstances, if a severe punishment should be inflicted on the de- l fendant, I think it might be regarded as l disproportioned to his real guilt, and be- ing so regarded, the sentence would be likely to react and bring into disrepute the wholesome provisions of the law, itself. !! And as to public example, which I am urged to make, we all know that the real 1 efficacy of the law must depend upon it's steady, uniform, unr elentlng and seanal application to all offenders, more, than 'up- on a severe, spasmodic and extraordinary sentence upon humble individual wrong.