The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-24
LAW AMI MURDER,

The debit and credit sides of the criminal
ledger for 1888 make avery unfavorable show
ing taken together. Crime has been active
while justice slept. Of murders the appalling
total Of l ,517 is reported as committed i'll the
United States during the last past year, or at
the rate of four on each secular day and five
on Sunday the year round. This record,
startling as it is, is not complete, for many
such crimes must have escaped public atten-
ton beyond the neighborhood in which they
were committed. Neither does this total in
clude the deaths by violence at the
hands of mobs. On the side of or
gained justice there were but ninety-three
legal hangings during the same period,
or at the rate of less than one execution to
fifteen killings. Consulting the statistics of
hanging, the murderer finds that his chances
of escape are as fourteen is to one. That is,
the loose way in which the law is admins
tered in this country puts a premium of 1,4OO
per cent. on crime. While no sufficient ex-
cuse can be made for the action of mobs that
gather to wreak vengeance on offenders against
criminal law, the condition of things quoted
offers explanation of their origin. 1t was
doubtless the failure of legal measures that in
spired the lynching of 116 murderers
during the past year. This is a de-
plorable state of affairs, when
the law is wrested from the
hand of reason and deliberation, and enforced
by the sudden and revengeful courts of pas
sion. There is enough in this showing to
stir society to its depths. Civilization cannot
stand this, and a remedy must be found and
applied. There are, undoubtedly, some things
that we might well initiate from older coun-
tries. Prominent among them is the celebrity
and certainty with which the courts of
European countries o-ortake and punish
murderers. A wanton murderer is almost as
certain to be detected and hanged there as
he is to commit the crime that de-
serves such punishment. There is no mine
ing about the matter; no prolonged trial and
speeches tiresomely spread out over days; no
nance for inconsequential technicalities to
bring about acquittal. Justice rides right
through and over them all, and comes out
triumphant with such gertrude as to dismay
blenders and restrain the vicious. AS a CON
sequence. the people have no occasion to make
good the lapses of the law, and lynchings are
unknown.
1t is more than useless to urge that lynch
ers be held accountable. Courts dare not
touch a man engaged in an irregular hanging,
talk as much about it as we may. If they
cannot administer justice to the man
who deliberately and maliciously takes life,
how can they be expected to deal with a mob,
or a member of a mob, that commits murder
in the interest of society at the mercy of des-
perate characters through the criminal insult
fciency of courtsg Strip truth to its bare
merits, and it will be found that courts and
peace officers are responsible for almost every
lynching that takes place. The public are
witnesses that fourteen murderers out of ff-
teen escape deserved punishment. A killing
was committed here in Indianapolis
a few months ago. A stranger,
with the stain of blood already on his hands,
stops off the cars and proceeds to get drunk
and to "take in the sights" While so doing
he ~imagines, or has reason to believe, that he
is being robbed, though it does not appear
that he lost q dollar or had a finger laid on
him in violence. He rushes out onto the
street and disturbs the peace and quiet of the
neighborhood. An unarmed officer of the law
advanced to the spot to quiet the disturbance,
and was shot dead. Tried and punished
Tried, yes, after d manner; but the killer has
long since been a free man. This crime was
not an extreme one, and the extremity of the
law should not have been visited upon the
prisoner, but it is useless to plead extenuating
circumstances against any punishment at all.
The killer of Hugh Burns wore out the law,
and because he did so, and was able to do so,
he went acquit. Less than q fortnight since
an Indiana court sentenced q common thief to
five years in the penitentiary, and the MUIR
derer of two of his relatives to but four years.
These are but two instances out of the 900
murder trials that did or should have taken
place during the year just past. II is a shame
that in over one hundred instances in that
year the people of this country resorted to
mob violence. The disgrace and humiliation
of such a state of affairs are fairly chargeable
TO courts that allow technicalities to defeat
justice and legal bubbles to make a mockery
of common sense. How long shall this con
tinue9 How long can it continue without