Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-05-01
lanraster fntellige1lrer.
EVENING. MAY 1, 1890.
Justice MOcked.

EVENING. MAY 1, 1880.
Justice Mocked. -. |
The release of Kembie and and his as
sociates in crime is simply horrible. 1t
has not q single palliation. The trump
cry excuse that is offered for it by the
pardon hoard, aggravates the offensive
ness of their sctien by the insult which |
it offers to the public intelligence. If
the sentence to separate and solitary con-
finement at labor was not in accordance
with the law which imposed imprison-
ment as the punishment for the crime OF |
corrupt solicitation, the prisoners should
have appealed to the courts, which con-
strue the laws, to say so. Most clearly
the board of pardons has no such author
ity. 1t may recommends pardon where
it considers it expedient, but it certainly
is improper for it to base its action upon
it's own construction of the law, its inter
probation differing from that of the court
which sentenced the convicts. There is
supreme court of appeal appointed to
settle definitely the laws of the state, and
to it the pardon board should refer those
who consider themselves to have been
unlawfully dealt with. This seems too
clear for disputation, and SO we believe
that the public judgment will condemn
the men who have released Kemble all
the more because of this reason which is
given in excuse of their action.
The supreme court, if it had been ap-
pealed to, would never have reversed the
sentence of the Dauphin court for the
reason assigned. That reason is, as
Judge Pearson is sreported to declare, just
nonsense, and nothing but a subterfuge.
A law which prescribes imprisonment as
the punishment for crime, prescribes the
sort of imprisonment which is imposed
in the place in which the prisoner is to
he confined. In the penitentiary sepa-
rate and solitary confinement at labor IS
ordered by the law. 1t is the barest pre-
tense that has ever been offered to impose
upon the public, to say that this pardon
board was induced to let these scoun-
drels 20 free because it believed them to
be unlawfully punished. Its members
were the political friends of the rascals,
and one of them is believed to have been
his associate in the crime. They did not
dare to send the legal question which
troubled them to the supreme court.
Judge Pearson says he has made
a careful examination into the
authorities and he is convinced
that he did not err in his sentence. If
he had done so, and the supreme court
had so found, the criminals would have
been sent back to him to be re-sentenced
as he declares. They would not have
escaped.
There is nothing in the law or in CON-
mon sense which declares that an excess
i've sentence entities a prisoner to de
mand that he shall 60 entirely free, and
yet this is the absurd argument of the
Pardon board. Because these men wert
sentenced to solitary imprisonment al
labor when they say the law only sait
imprisonment, and left the nature of il
to the jailer, therefore they should be re
leased from.any. imprisonment at all ant
the doors of the Harrisburg Jail ART
thrown open, where these men have beer
for few days awaiting the ex
pected action of their kind friends, en-
joying, it is said, in the meantime the eN
cellent fare sent into them and TIN
champagne they needed to enliven TIN
dullness of their seclusion.
If this action of the pardon board ha
not been an outrage upon justice and TIN
people we have never heard of one. w,
have no feeling at all against these con
victs except that detestation which i
due to their miserable crime and to thei
prostitution for filthy lucre's sake. The.
are utterly contemplate men and hav'
so confessed themselves. They are no
fit to be free, for they have abused thei
privileges as freemen and have sought t.
disgrace the democracy which it Ough
to be their pride and was their duty t.
sustain. Yet they are not more con
temptible in that regard than the mel
who have released them from their we'll
deserved punishment, actuated theret'
10y evil motives and because the convict
had powerful advocates who are as wicket
as themselves and only more fortunate il
escaping the law; who trembled lest tn
conspiracy in which they had been en-
gagged should he fully exposed and thei
criminality be discovered.
How two respectable men like Paine
and Stone have been weakened, whel
they were firm few weeks ago to shoy
these convicts the inside of jail, we d.
not understand. Probably they though
that public opinion would be satisfies
with the scanty vindication of justice af
forded by the spectacle of these men ca
rousing with their friends in the Dauphil
county Jail for few days. The stead
and heavy pressure brought to bear upol
them by their friends was hard to resist
and they fell before it, and these convict
go free, as all men know, because of thei
power and despite their confessed guilt
We will be astonished if the peopl
hearken to this news patiently and fai
to condemn the board of pardons and tn