The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-06-24
THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF CRIME.

The many frightful atrocities COM
mitted both in the East and in the
West recently have had tho effect Of
directing public attention to the num-
Der Of pardons granted by State Ex-
ecutives. In Massachusetts,, in one
year, out of one hundred and two
criminals sentenced to the State pris-
on iiity-tour were pardoned out. In
other years the percentage Of pardons
to sentences has been from eighteen to
thirty-seveu per cent. In Illinois, in
less than five months of the present
year, sixty-6ve pardons were granted.
Since December, 1874, in that State
five persons sentenced to imprison-
ment for life for capital crimes have
been turned loose upon society through
executive pardons, and this after they
had served only few years imprison-
ment. In Minnesota the fault is with
the law itself, which requires the jury
which tries and convicts to impose
the death penalty. Te secure CAPT.
tai punish ment under these circum-
stances is we'll nigh:impossible, as few
juries have the moral courage requi-
site for imposing the extreme penalty
provided by the law. Ramsey
county furnishes recent and strik-
ing instance of this. Of five persons
tried in St. Paul this spring for MUIR
der, cold-blooded, unprovoked and in
some instances premeditated, but one
was sentenced to be hung.
To this mistaken executive elem
ency, and to the fatal defect in the law
in our own State, is to be attributed,
without doubt, the startling increase
of crime obser vable almost every
where. Society Is too poorly protect
ed at best. What with the skillful
defense of an able criminal lawyer,
the only too frequently successful
pleas of insanity, and the unfavorable
composition Of many juries, convict
ions for capital ofenses are compara-
lively rare. And when there are ad-
ded the possibilities of escape
through the insecurity Of our prisons
and the prospects Of pardon through
the influences brought to bear upon a
Governor, the man who for revenge or
to crafty his lust for money murders
peaceable citizen runs no great risk.
So long as this state of affai1s contin-
ues crime will flourish and increase.
An improvement can be looked for
only when it is known that an execu-
ton is certain to speedily follow a
conviction for capital ofense. Who
believes that, had the five Ramsey
| county murderers been sentenced to
swing from the ga]lows, Anoka couu.
| ty would have witnessed the deGber-
ate murder of two weeks ago, when,
in full daylight and without one
word of provocation, one neighbor
cody walked up to within six feet of
another neighbor, and shot him dead!
Those who will not respect must be
made to fear the law, and this will
never beuntil tits more faithfully and
firmly executed by the men in whose
hands the trust has been placed
The death penalty is now about az
much Of sham as circus lion with
his teeth knocked out and claws saw
ed off.
At the last meeting of the Legisla-
ture Governor Davis in his message
called attention to the unfortunate
workings Of the statute by which
capital punishment is practically
abolished, but no action was taken by
that body in the matter. This negli'
gence should be remedied by the next
Legislature, that human life may not
be quite so cheap in Minnesota as il
has been since the innovation of 1868
Further failure in this direction will
not be tolerated by public sentiment
and no doubt will be allowed to exist
as to where the responsibility for the
increase of crime rests.