New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-04-03
Does Capital Punishment Pre-.
vent Crimef

1t is undoubtedly true that capital puhlsh-
ment for murder and various other offenses
was introduced into our criminal code, under
the conviction that the death penalty had
the greatest terror for evil doors of all other
modes of punishment, and would therefore
more effectually prevent those crimes than
any other. But every years experience,
every execution of a murderer, is proving the
absolute fallacy Of this belief, and that it has
not the slightest influence in preventing the
crime of murder. 1t follows, therefore, that
capital punishment fails TO secure, or to in
crease, the security of society, which is the
object for which it continues to be practiced,
and the only argument on which it rests. If
1t be true that capital punishment has not
the slightest restraining influence, why is the
barbarous and dcmoralizing punishment con-
tinued, and what single good end is gained
by it?
That, so far from preventing murder, capi-
tai punishment has had quite a different re-
suit, all experience and observation seem to
demonstrate. And the last four weeks have
been especially rich in Illustrations OF this
truth. There has not been an execution for
weeks, even out of New York, that has not
been Immediately followed by a murder in
the immediate neighborhood Of the hanging.
Friday murderer was hung in Alex
andria, and that night man was muir
dered in this city. Following close upon
the heels of every execution in this city
In the past year there has been murder.
Last week murderer was hung in Chicago,
and the same evening one Of the spectators
cut the throat of his companion. Since
Fosters execution murders in New York
seem to have increased, every day Witness
ing one at least, and oftener two. Those of
our readers who have taken enough interest
In public executions to retain those for the
last year or two in their memory, can bear
testimony to the correctness of our assertion,
that in nearly every case, murder has
almost Immediately followed, almost in sight
of the gallows.
But these dsmoralizing consequences OF
the death penalty have not been limited to
the past year or two, nor to our country or
age. In other years and other countries, its
results seem to have had quite as little influ-
ence in preventing crime, and quite as much
influence In brutalzing men already vciously
disposed. Mr.. T. II. Hazard, of Rhode
Island, who has given this subject long and
close attention, has furnished the Boston
Commonwealth with some of the results Of his
observations, and VIC select from his state
ment some of the more striking facts in sup
port of our opinion that capital punishment
does not prevent murder. The first is that
of q man hung in Worcester, Massachusetts,
for rape and murder in 1915. Within five
months four murders were committed within
less than days journey of his execution.
In the same year murderer named Zephon
was hung in Philadelphia, and within seven
weeks four murders were committed in the
immediate vicinity Of the gallows. One of
the jury that convicted DR.. Dodd, the dis
tinguished English divine, for forgery, was
executed on the same gallows for like
offsnse. Levi Kelly, who travelled from
Otsego to Albany to see Strang hung for
murder, committed murder two weeks after,
and was also hung. On the very night one
Iechler was hung III Lancaster, Penn
sylvania, forty-three persons were committed
to prison for various otienses, two or three of
which were for murder land one was hung with
the same halter that strangled Lechler. But
these illustrations will do, though we might
extend them almost indefinitely.
We will now turn to the other side of the
picture, and show from the same source what
has been the effect of the abolition of capital
punishment. This was done in Rhode Island
in 1882, and murders have diminished in that
State, proportionately, since that time. Mr..
Hazard asserts that the expense and diff
Guilty of conviction, in cases where the evil
dence is convincing, is done away with.
Capital punishment was abolished in Russia
In l74l, and it is declared on high authority
that under the operation Of the law Russia
was one of the countries in which the least
number of murders was committed. George
NJ. Dallas, our former minister to Russia,
says that "none with whom he conversed
ever dreamed of going back TO the old sys-
TEN. The laws, ;" he adds, 4" are of the mild
est character, and their effects are seen in
the character Of the people. Barbarous as
they were before the mitigation of their penal
code, its mldness has wrought such a change
that they are now among the mildest and
most peaceable people he has ever seem"
Edward Livingston says that only five muir
ders have been committed in Tuscany for
twenty years after the abolition of the death
penalty; while In Rome, where it was in
force, sixty murders had been committed in
that city and neighborhood in three months.
Sir James Macintosh abolished capital pun
ishment through the action of the courts in
Bombay in 1904. In his farewell address TO
the grand jury he says that i" from May, 1897,
10 May, 1904, there were eighteen conyic-
tons for murder Tin the population of two
hundred thousand) and thirteen capital exc
eutions. From May, 1904, TO ISL, there
were ak convictions for murder. The muir
ders for the former period were therefore very
nearly as three to one to those in the latter,
in which no capital punishment was infiict-
ed" Similar results were in degree exhib-
tied in Prussia, Holland, Denmark, Michigan,
Wisconsin, and other countries and States
where capital punishment had been either in
whole or part abolished.
The conclusion at which those who have