New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-03
ASKING FOR MERCY

Chastine Cox, who is under sentence Of death Tor
the murder Of Mrs. Hull continues to say TO every"
body who Interviews" him that he is not guilty
of premeditated murder. If he caused Mrs. HulPs
DEATH he did not mean to kill her. He then piously
adds that his Maker. who is the searcher OF all
hearts, knows that he is telling the truth. Cox IS
not altogether deficient in brains, and it might not
he useless if somebody would explain to MN the
exact nature of his offence. He was engaged 10
the preparation of burglary. While 80 engageu
he caused Mrs. HulPs death, as he admits. He was.
therefore, according to a perfectly just statute
guilty of murder in the first degree. We are not in
the least sure that he tells the truth when he says
that he did not intend to kill Mrs. Hull; but 1t
makes no difference whether he did or not. II ever
a human life was forfeited TO the law his is. Why
so many good people should be anxious to secure o
communication of his sentence we do not knows put
if it is to be committed. let there be no misappre-
hensOn of tho grounds upon which clemency Is eX-
tended
Another murderer under sentence Of death Is
Pietro Balbo, who killed his wife and then fled
from Justice The Italian residents Of the city have
particularly interested themselves i'll tho case OIL
this convicted man. and it is stated that many
Thousands have asked tho Executive to change his
punishment to imprisonment for life. 1t does not
seem to have occurred to these kind-hearted petit
TONERS that they are trying the case over again.
They ought to remember that it is thing adjudi-
Gated. If Babo is not to be executed, there IS no
reason in the world why he should be sent to the
State Prison for life. He has been convicted Of no
crime for which the law assigns such penalty.
1t is stated that great many persons are method
ically trying to save these two men from the gal
lows Far be it from us to impcach motives, Dut q
word about methods may not be untimely. The care
less way in which petitions like these now circulating
OF left for signature at various public places III TINS
CITY are signed very much dimnshes their moral
value. Men give their names with scarcely mo-
menfs consideration, simply because they
do not like to refuse them. 1t IS difficult
TO say mo" especially when "No" seems
hnrl-hearted and unmerciful How many OF those
who have signed the Chastne Cox petition have
fairly considered either the facts of an awful trag-
edy, or the consequences of misplaced clcmency
The public is not court of justice. We cannot
have juries Of twenty or thirty thousand people.
We cannot decide whether a man shall be put to
death or spared by going up and down the streets
asking this passerby or the other for his
opinion. We cannot settle such
matter as we settle political ques-
ton or the fate of political nomination Nobody
IN his moral senses ever thought lynch law to be
good law. Yet this trying man, if we may say so,
Iv pettion, is much the same thing. The duly
authorized tribunal says that the prisoner Is guilty
If murder in the first degree. The tribunal of pc
titoncr-, without any formal process, without
any scientific consideration Of the evidence,
guided entirely by its emotions or yielding TO
opportunities says, substantially, that the prisoner
Is not guilty OF murder in the first degree, and asks
the Pardoning Power to act upon this verdict OF
gucs4es, OF vague impressions, and OF thoughtless
decision II tho laws are to be enforced or rather
not enforced in this way, why not send these muir
der cases immediately to the people, to DO voted
unon in vord meetings, and to DO determined by
BALLOT