New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-12
STATE or LOUISIANA }


| New Orleans, May II, 1871.
hessrs- Cardos Pie, Spanish Consta; Dennis DoDo
hue, Her Britannia Madestys Consul; Edmun,
Surruys Consul of Belgium Charles Faucon
net, Consul of France, and others:
| GEETLEMEN-I have the honor to be il
| receipt OF communication from yourselves
and a number of other gentlemen, citizens
and residents of New Orleans, the object OF
which communication is to invoke execu
tive clemency in behalf of Vincent Bayonna
alias Saragodas, and Peter Abriel, who
| having been convicted of murder and sen.
fenced TO death, are, in pursuance of "a war
rant signed by the chief magistrate of the
State, to be capitally executed on Saturday
| next, the thirteenth instant
Not only from the high respect, gentle
men, which | entertain toward you pei
sonally, and the consideration which yoiff
official positions as the representatives OF
| friendly nations should inspire, but from
considerations of public policy, from anxiety
that, while public justice should be done,
the influences of mercy might have their
| weight, have given your petition q most
| earnest and careful attention. 1t pains me
to say that l have been unable to find any
| thing IN the circumstances of the case
| which would warrant or in the slightest de-
| gree justify Inc in interfering with the due
course of law.
In reviewing the incidents of the trial for
| murder, which resulted in the conviction
and capital sentence of these unhappy men,
am compelled to accede in the fullest ex-
tent to the justice of what you say in your
| petition: 1--WE do not propose to say any-
thing against the justice of the verdict CON
Flcting them, neither can we say anything
to palilate their crimes" The condemned
men had q full and fair trial with
every opportunity for legal defense or to
bring forward palliating circumstances,
should any exist, which always tell with
such tremendous weight in the delibera-
tiOns of q criminal jury.
1t must be acknowledged, too, that the
tendency of all juries in criminal trials is
toward leniency. Moreover as the law
stands, the jury have the power to substi-
tute perpetual Imprisonment tor death in
cases where they are bound to convict, but
which cases do not, in their opinion, call
tor the extreme penalty OF the law
All this constitutes an immense in
huence IN favor of every person
accused of crime and tried for his
life. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the Jury
who tried the case of Bayonna and Abriel
brought IL an unqualified verdict of guilty,
and careful review of the evidence by
which they were guided leads to the un-
ayoidable conclusion that when they
brought IN an unqualified verdict of guilty
they were fully justified by the law of the
land and the dictates OF justice.
Concerning the general issue, who can
deny that crimes of violence, of outrage
and murder are constantly on the increase
Hardly day, still less week, passes
wherein the daily journals do not record
case of startling crime; that is il would
have been startling some years ago, but
now, alas, we are used to it.
Yet 1T seems strange that no matter how
wickedly atrocious crime may have been
committed, the perpetrator always finds ad-
vocates that the law in his case may be
Modified and that justice may be thwarted
and set aside.
Who will deny that it is to this diseased
idea of rendering the law imperative for
the prevention of crime in every case of
capital conviction, that we are indebted to
the awful fact that murder daily stalks
abroad In our midst, ever seeking new
victims.
With this constant increase of crime
(hardly checked) staring us in the face, it
becomes the imperative duty of every good
citizen, and more especially the duty of
him on whom the law has, for the time
being, bestowed the responsibility of official
power, to consider what can be done to
remedy this constantly increasing evil, to
check this accumulating avalanche of vio-
lence, OF outrage, of murder. What can
check 1t except strict adherence to the
Law OF God and man, "whoso shedeth mans |
blood, by man shall his blood be she'd" If
the course OF law is to be constantly in |
teTtered with by executive interposition
when criminal is condemned, what can be |
expected but that society will retrograde to |
that state when every man must keep his |
lie by lis own personal prowess.
when he may take who has the power
And he may keep who can.
Inc laws in all the States of this Union |
ave wisely invested the chief magistrate |
u eac1 commonwealth with the pardoning |
1oEer, IN the last resort, to the end that |
when the strict administration of law would |
work hardship, executive interposition |
,Onld remedy the evil; bat this power is |
,nly To be used in exceptional cases. II |
vas never the purpose or intent of the law |
hat the chief magistrate of State should |
nterfere IN every case merely because he ia