The Portland daily press., 1875-12-21
Our New York Letter.
Triple Observation-Disclosures Men TO
Deaih.--Tke Case of DoIan.

'A0 -" w OHOhiuS u uedtu turco yOuuS uo-
groes in the city prison. The strangulation
was preceded by elaborate formalties. Early
IN the morning the cells of the culprits were
resonant with spiritual exercises, exhortatiou,
praying and singing. A number of clergymen,
protestant and catholic, white and black, were
in attendance, and their minstrations con-
tinued until o'clock. At that hour the corri-
dors of the Jail we're filled by a corps of Deputy
Sherffs forty or fifty in number, who had
marched in with great solemnity and were
paraded in double file before the cells of the
condemned men. Each of these officials wore
piece of black cr,pe on the left arm. AS
soon as they were marshaled in their places
the sheriff and under sheriff entered the cells,
the latter functionary read the death warrants
and each victim in turn was made ready for
the scaffold. The poor creatures were all in
full dress, including the white neckte. ''The
subsequent proceedings interested me no
more" left the scene at that point, more
than ever convinced that capital punishment
IS something too CHASTITY and horrible to be
palliated on any other plea than that it checks
the crime it avenges As / have no idea that
1t does produce that effect, the system seems
to me immitigably barbarous and revolving.
One of the most offensive conccmitants of an
execution is the exhibition of morbid curiosity
Iof which it is always the occasion. Thousands
OF men-very many of them we'll dressed and
Of decent appearancs-gathered around that
gloomy looking structure, so aptly called the
"Tombs," and staid for hours on cold De-
cember morning, with no conceivable object,
apparently, except to be near the scene of
which it was utterly impossible for them to
see or hear the slightest thing. For days be-
fore the tragedy men and women, arrayed in
fashionable attire and having every outward
semblance of refinement, eagerly sought sd-
mission within the walls, for the sake of satis-
tying this sickly taste. The newspaper report
ers-always pretty good judges of what their
readers want-1evoted columns to minute
descriptions of the convicts, and details of all
they said and did. There cannot be any doubt
think that hanging men has demoralizing
effect upon the community at large
Dolan escaped the halter at the last moment
through the somewhat unjudicial interference
OF MIR. Justice Donahue. This unlucky jurist
is acquiring disagreeable notoriety in conse
quence of his rulings. His decision in the
Tweed case was so obviously wrong that it was
promptly reversed And in this matter of
Dolan, a stay of proceedings was granted with I.
out conforming to the requirements of the
statute 1t was therefore nullity. But as
everybody is willing at the last moment to
save life, the illegality of the order was not
suffered to hinder compliance with it, and
Dolan survives. His sentence ought to be
commuted to Imprisonment for life without
any further delay. To keep him Vibrating
between time and eternity any longer is to
make a hero and martyr of him.
The statement of the ground on which Judge
Donahue interfered, supposing it to be correct
ly reported, will bewilder any layman who is
sufficiently grave to treat it seriously and
amuse the far greater number of people who
will be obliged to "give it up" as an unauswer-
able connundrum.
Here it is:
Judge Barrett charged the jury that
if they found that John Dolan killed Mr..
Noe while in the act Of committing felony, it
was murder in the first degree. Whereas the
law says that the killing must be found to be
without any design to effect DEATH when
perpetrated in the act of committing a felony.
In other words, the killing of one man BY an
other while committing felony must be with
out intent to make It murder in the first degree.
Ii committed with intent it is not murder in
the first degree unless "perpertrated from de-
liberate and premeditated design to effect
death"
That is to say if Dolan intended to kill Noe,
then he did not commit wilful murder If he
had no intention to take Noes life, why then
he did commit wiliul murder.
rather guess that is sound law because it is
so intensely absurd and incomprehensible.
What dreadful thing it would have been to
have hung Dolan and then to have discovered
afterwards that he comitted the burglary which
led to the murder aciM antent to kill. Some
casuists might, to be sure, endeavor to excuse
the wrong by arguing that murder committed
with intent to kill was really 'sperpetrated from
deliberate and premeditated design to effect
death;' but even culprit is not to be cut off
in the flower of his youth by any such wretched
sophistry as this.
And then how fortunate it was that the dis
covery was made just before the fatal hour ar
rived. The regular counsel didn't see it, nobody
saw it during the sixty days that this poor fell
low has been lying within the awfnl shadow of
impending death. Judge Barrett could not have
realized how near his mistake came to bringing
about catastrophe which would have embit-
tered his future days. The District Attorney
must have wholly failed to observe this copclu :
sive defect in the charge. The keen scrutiny
OF the eminent lawyer who has made the de-
tense of criminals the study and business of his
life has saved the State from the commission of
judicial homicide. The entire burglar fra
ternity will feel grateful for the vindcation of
their rights, and whenever they find it neces-
sary to kill somebody in the prosecution of
their business, they will be quite sure if de-
tected to avert the hangman's rope by pleading
in extenuation that they intended to commit
murder, but did not harbor the deliberate and
premedtated design to effect DEATH"
What subtle distinctions the law makes be.
tween burglars and highwaymen, do not vet
appear, but to the ordinary mind the same plea
might have availed to rescue the three men who
met their fate yesterday if it had been thought
of in time. They confessed the intent to kill,
but it may have been that the charge of the
Judge in their case did not contain .he faulty
sentence, which has served Dolan's purpose so
well. 1t is too late to open the question now,
but humane people can hardly repress shudder
at the possibility of their having been illegally
made way with.
Very few persons imagine will feel any re
gret that the fautless and beautiful machinery
of Jurisprudence which is the proud boast of
our free institutions has wrought the beneficeLt
end of preventing an irretrievable act of inius-
tice in this instance. 1t is to be hoped, how
ever, for the peace of innocent citizens who
live in an ndefnable fear of the irruption of
burglars. that the reaction in popular senti-
ment will not take the extreme form of de-
manding that amends be made to Dolan for the
injury he has already suffered by giving him an
immediate release. That would be carry
ing the principle of redress too far. All that
can reasonably be askel is that he should be
allowed the benefit of the doubt and the fact
assumed that he did intend to kill Noe, and is
therefore guiltess of wilful murder. The
fright he has had may have produced 80 salu.a
ry an effect upon him that he will be willing to
relieve the state Of any further trouble by &C.
cepting Communication of sentence. The
chances are that if new trial is ordered hs
will do better than that, but perhaps he will
prefer the certainty of living in State Prison
tO the possih1itv of Il