Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-01-23
Capital Punishment.
From the st. Paul Globe.
Tho l.

From the st. Paul Globe.
The people of Wisconsin have recently |
had their attention called to the subject of
criminal law so far as it concerns the
punishment prescribed for the crime of
murder. About twenty-five years ago
the death penalty was abolished in Wis
consin, the severest punishment that
could be inflicted for the grossest of
crimes being fixed at imprisonment for
life. A class Of so-called humanitarians |
have for years been pointing to Wiscon>
SIN as the State above all others that had |
conformed to the dictates of the age by
abolishing that relic of barbarism, the
gallows. But the results, Waved from
other than a Humanitarian" standpoint,
do not seem to have realized the expecta-
tions of the trainers of the law. Murders
have increased steadily: in thatstate from
that day to this, and have been growing
in atrocity from year to year. The opin-
ion is freely expressed by all persons at
all conversant with the operations of the
law that the abolishment of capital pun
=ishment was a great mistake. Bat there \
is another feature of the question that is
but imperfectly understood-the relative
degree Of punishment inflicted by hang>
ing or by imprisonment for life, and to
those who object to capital punishment a ]
few facts may not come amiss. The
Globe is aware of the fact that among phi
lanthropists facts weigh but lightly, yet
it is constrained to accord to those who
have had practical knowledge of prison
life hearing. The directors of the Wis
consin penitentiary, in a report recently
submitted to the governor, take occasion
to present few facts that will bear care>
'ful consideration. They say that the to-
tai number Of life prisoners sent to the
State prison at Waupun, since its organi-
zation in 1853, is ninety>four, of which
fifty -four were convicted of murder,
twenty-nine murder IN the first degree,
and eleven in the second degree. Of this
number there have been discharged by
executive pardon thirty-one; order Of the
courts, eight; removed to the insane
asylum, three; and six have died. OF
those pardoned out the longest term
served was seventeen years, and the
shortest service was two years and nine
months. In depicting the condition of
the life prisoners the directors give some
facts that ought to claim the attention of
humanitarians. They say that the con-
dition of most of the life members is de-
plorable to the last degree. Some of them
are already insane; but, however wild
their delusions may be on other subjects,
they never fail to appreciate the fact that
they are prisoners. Others, not yet
classed as insane, as year by year goes by,
give only too conclusive evidence that
reason IS becoming unsettled. The ter.
ribleness of life sentence must be seen
to be ppreclated-seen, too, not for
day or week, but tor term of years.
Past experience leads to the supposition
that some Of them will become insane IN
less than ten years, and all Of them who
live in less than twenty. The fact is that
imprisonment for life, provided it is car
ried out, is far more severe punishment
than death. Yet there is a strong repug>
nance to the infiction of the death PEN
atty which can never be overcome.
Even criminals prefer life sentence,
though they may have little hope that it
will be commuted-an indication that
even in the most depraved the insplratio n
of hope is not dead. The report of the
commissioners, however, will serve to
awaken an interest in the subject, and
may lead some of the so>called humanita-
rians to the conclusion that the moose is
not as barbarous as it has been repre-
sented.