The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-09-29
THE MURDER MANIA.

y
homicides in this district, attention
being especially directed to the two
lynchings, where the victims had
been duly arrested and were in the
custody of the authorized officers of
the law. The Judges earnestness Is
to be commended, and it is to be
hoped the grand jury will perform
its duty fairly, faithfully and with
out fear or favor. There has been
altogether too much lawlessness of
late. There have teen too many
killings. The pistol, the knife and
the rope have been too readily
brought into use. 1t is high time
that vigorous measures were lnstl-
tuted and enforced for checking if
not for putting an entire stop to this
industry of homicide. But grand
juries cannot do all in the premises
that is required to be done. Indeed,
as rule grand juries have never
been slow to indict. 1t has usually
been the case that they have present
ed accused persons whenever there
was probable cause to believe there
was guilt, and not infrequently
have these bodies Of inquisitors in
dicted when it was quite improba~
BILE that conviction could be had.
The prosecuting officers and the
Judges themselves should have
quite as much to do in this matter
as grand jurles. Prompt trial and
swift and certain punishment of the
guilty will do much more towards
the suppression OF lawlessness than
anything else. 1t is not the indict-
ment that the criminal fears; it is
the conviction and the infection of
the penalty for his misdeed. The
course of justice in this Territory of
late years has not been such as to
strike terror deep into the hearts of
criminals. The murderer looks
back over 8 long list of predecessors,
and finds but two or three instances
where the slayer of fellow creature
has been punished as the law directs.
He finds prosecutors in mo hurry to
go to trial, and courts not anxious
to press matters; he also sees that
the law is frequently interpreted in
loose and ignorant ways, whereby
the guilty not only escape the
galIows, but are not seriously incon-
venienced in the matter of impris- !
onment. The fact is, that so
earelessly has the law been enforced |
by the courts, that the fellow who |
takes another's life fears the statutes
and constituted dispensers of justice
less than he does the avenging |
hands of his victims relatives or
The late lynchings in this
city and Park City are due largely |
if not wholly to the slothfulness and |
of legal justice. 1t is
true, as Judge Hunter states it to |
be, that the delay Of Justice does |
not excuse mobs nor warrant people
in taking the law into their own
hands; at the same time his honor
knows, as do all intelligent persons,
that if the law were more prompt,
outraged communities would he less
liable to go mad, and summarily
deal with criminals. If justice had
been sure-footed and swift in this
district, we believe Salt Lake would /
not now Ibear the stain of having
INDUCED in a brutal lynching.
The first thought that came into
the heads of the Infatuated mob
on that occasion, was of
a notorious murder whose bloody
deed was pc; petrated years ago, and
who yet defes courts, laws and
justice. His name was on many
lips, and it is fortunate for him as
well as for the city's reputation that
he was out of reach; otherwise the
town would have been doubly hor-
r'fed, and another bloody lynching
counted to its shame and disgrace.
If Justice Hunter is earnest and
anxious in this matter-and we
sincerely believe him to be-he can
do as much in the premises as any
individual. He can make his court
a terror to evil doors. He can let
the murderer understand that if his
crime be proven, punishment will
surely and swiftly follow. When
this impression is created the kill
Iers will be less handy with their
revolYers. If the would-he mus
derer understands that the hang
mans moose will follow the fatal
shot, he will be less lively in the use