Arizona citizen., 1873-06-07
THE CITIZEN.
TUCSON, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA.
Saturday. June 7. IS| $.
THERE are many humanitarians who af-

firm that the poorest use Wnlcn can De
 made of an individual is to hang him. II
 is certain that he is good for nothing after
 that, except to point moral and to i'm
 press upon other bad men some sense of
 the majesty of the law and the certainty of
 punishment at last for our outrageous
 crimes. Society demands protection. If
 it cannot obtain it short of enforcing the
 extremest penalties, 1t will resort to the
 scaffold. When courts fail to convict, and
 crime becomes rampant, and all the guar
 antics of public safety are broken down,
 then the community establishes it's own
 court, and tries and punishes malefactors. The lives and the protection of the many
 are of more consequence than the lives of
 the demons who lift up their hands in per
 petual warfare against society. It is a
 terrible alternative which drives commu-
 nity to administer that justice which
 courts have failed to uphold.
 Of the murders which have been com
 mitted in San Francisco very few have
 been followed by the capital punishment
 of the guilty parties. But just about in
 the ratio of this remissness has crime in
 creased. Once let this conviction obtain str ng hold of the criminal element of the community that under no circumstances will the extreme penalty of the law be in ficted for killing with malice, and deadly weapons are drawn on the slightest provo cation. Murder with some of these fellows becomes mere pastime. There IS only just a pleasurable excitement in shooting a man down in cold blood, or in waylay ing him in the small hours of the night. The greatest protection to life and limb has been secured in this city during those years when the impression was strongest that punishment sure and swift would overtake the criminal.
 We take the above extract from the San Francisco Bulletin of May 15. and theorists may make as many fine spun arguments as they please against capital punish ment, but there Is one fact patent, that just in proportion as the bully and desperado commit crimes and go just in that proportion crime will increase. It is not very consistent to shed tears over a crim- inal condemned to death, and have no sympathy for the widow and or pnans, the brothers and sisters, the aged father and mother of the vic tims who have fallen by the hand of the assassin. We should have some regard for the security of society and teach these lawless fiends. that to take the life of a fellow-man without cause is a dangerous experiment. Many brutal murders have been committed l in Arizona, but through the laws de- lay and technicalities, the halter in every instance but one has been cheated of its due. Appeals have been taken and new trials granted, until the criminal has made good his escape, or the witnesses being dead or a absent, the prison doors have been opened and the prisoner allowed again to prey upon the community. We hope those intrusted with the ex- ecution of the law, will in future try and see how vigorously they can bring this class of men to punishment instead of trying how they can best secure acquittal. Some may consider the latter course as in the interest of humanity, but It is only in the inter est of outlaws, and stimulating them to greater deeds of crime, and is @ fla tai stab at the security of life and property and orderly society.