Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-02-05
0he canfastcr 1ntellieci,feT
LANCASTER, FEBRUARYS, 5, 1855.
why Not Hang the Bunglers I

The gentle Mrs. Dudley shot ODonovan
Rosa because she thought the world
would be better off if he was not in it.
They say the avenging Mrs. Dudley is in
sane, and SO she may be; but she did not
show it in shooting Jerry O'Donovan for
cause. The logic of her performance was
first rate. 'O'Donovan, she said, is
an enemy of humanity, and the world
would be happier without him, / can re-
move him, and it is my duty to
do it." Admitting that O'Donovan
is the evil character which the
amiable Mrs. Dudley held him to be,
by world which applauds its Charlotte
Cordays. The pretty Mrs. Dudley may be
accused of an error of judgment in esteem
ing O'Donovan to be the very important
and very dangerous man she thought him
to be !; but bad judgment does not consti-
tute insanity in the eye of the law; else
there would not be many held to be sane
The fair Mrs. Dudley if she had killed
Jerry, would have been about as clearly
guilty of murder as anyone can be imag-
agined to be. She not only shot her man,
but continues to express her sorrow that
shedid not kill him. Certainly, if she is
not insane she would have been murderer
under every Interpretation of the law, if
she had slain her man. She is not, be-
cause she did not. Though she intended
to kill, she failed in her intent, and has
saved her neck.
And this has ever been to us never
failing cause of surprise. Why one who
intends to kill is not as guilty as he who
kills, and as worthy of punishment, we
have never been able to comprehend. We
marvel at the intelligence of Legislators who
say that he who kills deliberately shall die,
and he who intends to kill deliberately.
but fails, shall be but lightly punished
Certainly the protection of society de-
mands that the unsuccessful intent shall
be punished as severely as the successful
How is the sweet Mrs. Dudley less guilty
kill And how is society to be prohibited
against private executioners, by failing to
hang only the bunglers ? 1t is in tn
highest degree absurd to make the death
of the victim the essence of the crime.
rather than the intent to cause death. If
the murderer should be hung, ali who are
murderers in heart and attempt to execute
their purpose should be hung. Where's,
now, under the judicial legislation of
our courts, it does not even need
that the intent to kill shall exist to make
, murderer of the slayer. lie may be mur-
derer, if he Stays when he is drunk and
knows not what he is doing and the ma
jority of those who are hung for murder
did the deed, not deliberately and re-
joicingly, as the amable Mrs. Dudley, but
more or less under the influence of passion,
and regretting their deed as soon as it was
done.
There is nothing more in need of re-
form than the treatmennt of in
territorial slayers by law. They should
all be hung or confined for life, that
society may be in no further danger from
their slayingpropensities. The unintentional
slayers should be punished according to the
degree of their culpability and the danger
existing to society from their recklessness,
but their crime should not be weighed
chiefly by its result.