Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-03-19
Capital ExecutiOns-A Desirable Law


THE recent bungling of capital execu-
tions in this country is a shock to hu-
manity and a public scandal There
have been no more painful details in
the papers than the accounts of hang
ings," and so long rs the last dread
penalty of crime is to be enforced. it
concerns our national character that it
should be done decently. The remedy
for the shameful circumstances of such
scenes is simple and obvious, and we
trust that the present Legislature will
apply it in this State The practice in
New York is well known. The offender
is tried and sentenced in the county
where the crime was committed, and
he is then imprisoned in the county
jail until the time Of execution. The
Sheriff who discharges the painful duty
is quiet citizen or politician, who has
no knowledge or experience to fit him
for so mOmentOus an office. In England
and on the Continent there is public
executiOner, who is trained to the task,
and whose service prevents the re-
pulsive scandals which accompany exc
cutions in this country. In some places
it is even a hereditary office. The
consequences of our practice are seen
in the Odious details of executions, and
there is no Sheriff in the State probably
who would not gladly be relieved of the
performance of this terrible duty.
But there are more serious considera-
tiOns. If we are not misinformed, an
official person, in an inspection of forty
three counties in this State, found at
one time twenty-six prisoners under
sentence of death. They were all, of
course, confined in the county jails, and
it appears that the capital sentence
gives n certain distinction to the con-
demned man which is of the most de-
grading influence upon the other pris-
oners. He is treated with kind Of re-
| spect and consideration, as if the great
er enormity of his crime gave him a
claim to superior regard and even hon
OF. The attendants in speaking to the
other prisoners take tone of deprecia-
tion and contempt, as if common
thieves and pickpockets, and mere
burglars and incendiaries, could have
no Just claim for attention in the pres
ence of an actual murderer. He be-
comes the center of morbid interest in
the neighborhood. There is the ut
most eager curiosity to see him, and
the felon who is guilty of the most in
human and appalling crime is invested
with an air of romance in the minds of
the wild and ignorant youth of the COM
munity, who are thus taught to see in
the commission of crime a passport to
admiration and attention. The late re-
port of the Jail Committee of the Char
tiles Aid Auxiliary, in the County of
Richmond, where Reinhardts, con-
demned for the murder of his wife, lies
in the county Jail, calls attention to this
! deplorable impression upon the ignO-
rant part of the community, that GRIM
inal under sentence of death is a kind
of hero.
The remedy both for this demoraliz-
ing situation and for the repulsive con-
sequences of the ignorance and inca
pacity of Sherills for the duty of hang
man, and the way to secure a prompt,
effective and decent execution of the
death penalty, is the passage of law
in this State like that of New Hamp-
shire, which was enacted only two years
since, and which should become uni
versal, This law provides that per-
son who is sentenced to be hanged
shall at the same time be sentenced to
Imprisonment in the State Prison at
Concord until the time appointed for
carrying the capital sentence into effect.
That time in New Hampshire is more
than Il year from the date of the SEN
tence, but that may be matter for
consideration. The law further pro-
vides that the execution shall take place
within the walls of the State Prison
The Sheriff and two of his deputies are
to be present, unless unavoidably pre-
vented, and the Sheriff is to request the
attendance of the Attorney General or
Solicitor, the Clerk of the Court and a
surgeon, and other reputable citizens
not exceeding twelve, the relations of
the convict, his counsel, and such oler-
gyman rs he may desire. We can inn
agine no objection whatever to n SINH
law In this State, requiring the transfer
of the prisoner upon his capital SEN
tenoe to one of the State Prisons, to be
designated in the law, in order that exc
cution may be done competently and
privately, with fitting witnesses, and
that all the morbid and most injurious
excitement which now surrounds the
condemned man, the county Jail and the
community may be effectually and i'm
mediately dispelled. - -Harper's Weekly.
A Hazardous Feat.
FIVE lads, who had been playing on
the English coast, near Plymouth, at