The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1883-01-31
GERMAN MURDER LAWS.
They are Far More Lenient than Those
Which Obtain i'm America.
Some Original Ideas Connected with the
Thompson Case.

10 the Evening Light.
In a late number of the LIGHT was published
a translation from the Freie Presse. The article
kills itself through its own want of truth and
dignity, and the animus of it places it beneath
the one it attacks. Mr.. Thompson was indicted
of murder in the first degree by jury most of
Germans. AS he was indicted of murder i'm the
first degree, it was not i'm the power of judges
afterwards appealed to to give bail. The whole
structure rested on Ben ThomOson's indictment
by jury composed principally of Germans.
These men were clearly bent on his death, but
the law which provides for such emergencies
allowed him anew jury. Better that the guilty
should escape than the innocent should suffer.
Now as to the German laws regarding murder.
will transcribe from the pages of Baron Franz
Won HoltZendorf professor of international
and criminal law, University of Munich:
Gan cases of voluntary killing, perpetrated
either from heat of passion or without proof of
generalization, are to be punishable either with
hard labor in common cases or with impriSOn-
ment not exceeding five years and not under
six months, this diminutiOn of punishment to
take place on the declaration of the jury that
there have been mitigating circumstances in
the commission of the crime or serious provo
cation on the part of the killed person. =
Perhaps it may be asserted that the German
law is considerably less severe i'm some respects
than the English law. In Germany there is no
such thing as constructed murder; indeed, it
never existed in German Jurisprudence. Nor
is it a case of murder when killing is the con-
sequence of some other felOni0us act,
us arson, burglary or manning. In order
10 render a verdict of guilty of murder or
voluntary manslaughter, the jury must he
fully convinced that, according to the German
rules of evidence. killing has been wilful, not
only as to the intliction OF any wound having
been the cause of death, but also as to particu-
lar intent that death should ensue. Hence Il
great number of cases, in which English juries
would be obliged to render verdict of guilty
of MURDER will appear in the German criminal
statistics under the head of mayhem.
For centuries there has been in Germany an
uninterrupted tradition in criminal jurispru-
dence and legislation to this effect, that killing
ought not to be punished as other common
cases of MURDER if perpetrated by a mother on
her illegitimate child, at, or Immediately after
its birth. The motives of shame and despair,
combined with state of physical weakness,
were held TO offer, If not a justitica-
ton for impunity, at least some
strong reasons for the admission of mitigation.
Both the crimes of duel and infanticide, pro-
ceeding as they do from the impulse of
offended honor, either sexual or social, have in
Germany always been held to entirely differ
from the commission of murder by a person
lying in wait, or in the act of robbery"
BY these extracts we perceive that the Ger
man criminal law in regard to murder makes
greater allowance for the state of mind of the
criminal and for provOcation than the most eX-
IRENE tension of American law allows. And
unless the murder is committed for gain, or is
premeditated, the punishment by German law
is no more heavy than the sentence under
American Jaw for small theft. Let Germans
here talk about German law To talk is one
thing and to prove is another The fault of
American law is that it is too severe on acts of
impulse or crimes that the perpetrater is mad
dened into committing. A young man openly
kills, from jealousy, a woman whose art is to
entice and ruin him. Here he by a
skillful struggle escapes the gallows and goes
to hard labor for life. How different would il
be according to the German code!
Onenses against the peace and honor of in
dividualS are severely dealt with in Germany
Anyone outraged by wrong and public insults
may take the life of the prosecutor, and the
German code makes every allowance for him.
The whole secret of the Freie Presses spite is
that the lives of people are not left TO the
ignorance and caprices of some well-fed
Germans of the bourgeOiSe. For such an article
as the one in the Freie Presse the editor would
in his fatherland, be quietly put in Jail
He speaks of the people. Who are the people i?
The GermansY Let them rise because the law
does not allow them supreme authority over
the jurists whose laws have saved millions in
the depths of ages. The gratitude of orphan
children, of widows, of lost women who have
found redress and protection in those laws will
speak without word OF mine. GERMAN.