The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-03-26
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Capital Punishment as Means Of
Preventing Crime.

The recent execution III NC" VI h'
of Foster, the car-hook murderer, has
revived a discussion which has been
long agitated, as to the efficiency OF
capital punishment as a means OF
checking crime. Two years ago Eos
ter committed brutal murder upon
IN inoffensive man, who was protect
ing two ladies from insult in a street
car, and though his conviction followed
speedily, yet through successive ap'
peals to the higher Courts, and the
interposition of executive clemency,
the sentence has only been executed
on Friday last-executed too against
an amount Of pressure, and an array
Of influence which have seldom been
brought to bear in any one case. Du-
ring these past two years, crime has
been rife in Now York, trials have
been regarded as almost a mockery of
Justice, and, at this very moment,
some halfdozen criminals are await
ing verdicts in the Tombs, who are
doubtless guilty of the most atrocious
murders.
If anything is certain, it is that
the death penalty on the statute book
has proved most inefficient, in New
York, at least, i'll preventing the
commission of murder, or checking
it's increase. Does this result follow
because the law is not enforced, and
punishment is hence uncertain But
why is the law not enforced? Differ
ent persons may answer tho question
differently, but it is, no doubt, largely
owing to the fact that capital punish
ment is not in accordance with the
tastes and convictions of large class
of the community These tastes and
convictions may have been improp-
erly formed, and the humanitarian
views of modern reformers may be
only false conclusions drawn from
false premises; yet, nevertheless, they
exist, and no Legislature, worthy of
the name, can afford to ignore them.
AS long as they exist, they remain as
so many obstacles to interfere between
the law and the enforcement of its
penalty. And the consequence is.
that the certainty of punishment
without which it is entirely inefficient
as a preventive Of crime, is entirely
taken away.
But, after all, are these humanita,
rian views not the true views; accord,
ing most with natural instincts, and
our own experience of the pature and
effect of punishment? Capital pun
ishment is doubtless very demoral,
izing, bunting the nice sonsibilities OF
our nature, and pandering to its
worst tastes-breaking down those
safeguards of virtue which lie in well.
ordered tastes and emotions, and de.
veloping thirst for blood which
seems latent in every human heart.
Familiarity with suffering produces
callousness of feeling, and contact
with extreme punishment seems to
be attended with the same insensibil-
isy, which robs vice Of its most repnl-
sive features. Punishment, which is
intended to reform, seems only to
harden, and the extreme penalty of
the law, which is inflicted for the
purpose of preventing crime, produces
that state Of feeling which affords the
best preparation for its commission.
But, says an objector, by the aboli-
tion of capital punishment, we are
running in the teeth of Scripture,
which says that "whoso sheddeth
mans blood, by man shall his blood
be shed.". Yet this would apply with
as much force to manslaughter as
murder. vet no one now contends for
the inaiction of the death penalty in
the case of manslaughter.
In a communication to the New
York Sun, Mr.. Thos. r. Hazard, a
prominent gentleman Of New Jersey,
cites the following evidence of the
salutary influence Of the abolition of
capital punishment in different States
and countries: 1t was abolished by
the State of Rhode Island in 1882,
"Tbe change in the law" he says,
"has been attended with the most
beneficial results. Murders have been
less frequent in the State proportion
ately to the population than before
the change, while the expense and
difficulty Of conviction in cases where
the evidence is convincing, are en-
tirely done away with"
Capital punishment was abolished
in Russia by Elizabeth in 1741. In
1891 Count Segur declared in the
2fooiteur that "under the operation of
the law, Russia was one of the coun.
tries in which the least number of
murders was committed" George
IN. Dallas, our former Minister to
Russia, says that ssnone with whom