New-York tribune., 1872-05-24
THE GARRABRANT CASE.

we're and solemn Convicted criminals in that
| State have few chances for escape. The rea-
| sons are plain. There is less political inu-
| ence used in the election Of her chief officers
than is used in almost any other State in the
| Union; her judges are appointed from among
| the most learned and conservative members
of the bar, who think it an honor to be eie-
| waited TO the bench and the laws are clear,
stringent, and unhampered by multltudes OF
snecious amendments. The executive and jul
| dical departments of the State are admirably
oroanized: and there is largey-cOnstituted
| Court of Pardons. Most of the Judges of the
Supreme Court and the ChancellOrs have been
| appointed as Democrats by Democratic Gov
ernors yet it has so happened that there mas
been no Judge who was OdiOus or unpopular,
and that they have all received the approba-
ton of the people, without regard to party !;
and it is the boast of the lawyers, that al
though they can quote the decisions OF few
courts outside of the State. the reports OF
Halstead ,of Vroom and of Zabriskie are good
authorities in nearly every State in the Union.
But though the laws are clearly unmlstaka-
bic, the practice well-defined, and the penalties
rigorous and though the judges decide upon
law and verdict, there are places In New
Jersey in which crime is almost an epidemic !;
and it's most enterprising city has become
by-word in the mouth of the world. This Is
sometimes q misfortune and sometimes fault.
The State laws are exact and the State officers
are generally efficient, but the local ponce
regulations are not in keeping with local ad-
vancement. The growth of the cities is great,
and a foreign population is effacing the ruts OF
the old country civilization but the local
officers, elected, perhaps justly, because they
are not new corners, do not apprehend that the
new cities have grown away from the OLD
towns. A few more modern murders Will
rouse the cities to the knowledge that they
can no longer rely upon the instincts of Ar
cadian innocence, nor upon the somnolent
goodness of od-time officials. The crimes
should not be laid at the doors of the mills;
for the perpetrators of most of them would
have been less unfortunate if they had been
at work. Two of the Paterson murders have
occurred within the shadow of single cheap
house of prostitution, and one of the victims
was the keeper The murders by abortion
have occurred in New-York, the victims and
the causes of them being young women and
young men who did not strictly belong to the
working classes of the mills.
Libbie Garrabrant is young girl who
tramped the streets, and she was well known
to the police. She is neither pretty
nor agreeable; and the responsibility of her
parents does not attach to her. She yio-
lated the law in q horrible, not 10 say gro
tesque manner. She may be weak minded, as
most girls in her degraded situation must be !;
and no sane person would have pursued the
course of murder, and the hiding of it, that
she pursued. She was insane because she was
thoroughly bad. The sentence of the law is
equal to her violation of the law. 1t is horrible,
not to say grotesque. She is sentenced to be
hanged on the 10th of July. Those who know
the rigor of New-Jersey justice, and the al
most unapproachableness of the committing
power, believe she will die on the scaffOld.
Yet in all that vast crowd that prosecuted
her, tried her, judged her, sentenced her,
and saw her go back to her dark cell, there
were few persons who did not wish that
her punishment might be imprisonment for
life The Attorney General announced that
he wished her life might be spared, and his
sympathies and hopes were with the counsel
for the defense. The jury conscientiously de-
cided that she was guilty, because the law
imposed upon them the duty of deciding
according to the evidence, which showed that
she was guilty of murder in the degree of
which the penalty is hanging. Judge Bedle
as a man could hardly deliver the sentence
which he was bound to impose as a judge.
And the crowd murmured with horror when
she was condemned to death. There were
few women, with husbands to regard, who
were savagely aware of the justice of the SEN
tence rather because the girl was prostitute
than murderess; but most of the crowd
were no. so virtuous, and they hoped she
would "only be sent for life.n
Tins, if q vote had been taken upon the
question whether, in that city of beauty and
of industry, one man should put girl to
death because she had put q man-whO had
yilely educated her-to death, it is presumable
that the majority of the citizens would vote
no. Upon the abstract question of hanging
girl for murder they might vote yes but pub
lie opinion is, evidently, in n practical case,
against even New-Jersey justice. There is
conservative legal force more potent than
the popular opinion which is said to
make laws. Custom is strong because it has
its foundation in strength, and human sympa-
thy is weak until it is transformed into horror
and disgust of the law. If, on the 10Th of
next July, New-Jersey justice shall stain its
farest valley with the blood of weak in
sanely bad young girl we venture to say that,
because of the barbarism, rather than Of the