Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-08-31
LIQUOR CRIMES.

Very rarely indeed do we permit COM
ment in the REcoRD- UNION upon the con-
duct Of men charged with taking human
life who have not yet been tried. The
case Of the murder of young Guindon in
San Francisco, Saturday night if any case
can, may be made an exception. The
statements Of all who witnessed the affair
agree that it was IN unprovoked killing of
human being. The deceased, aged but
twenty-five years, was youth of excellent
moral character, perfectly correct in habits,
lived a home life, was modest, gentle and
against his fair name there was not
breath Of suspicion. He accompanied
young lady to the fair by consent of her
parents, and returning was met by her
father, and, according to the girls own
statement, and the dying declaration of the
youth, was shot down in cold blood by him,
without reason or excuse Of any kind. The
wife Of the murderer says he had been on
spree, and that whisky was the cause Of
The deed. The slayer of this youth, in
the prime of young manhood, simply de
MES the deed and says that he never saw the
victim Of his hand. He may have, as his
brother AYERS, a complete defense, and it is
TO be hoped in all mercy that he has But
if it is to be this, that he was inflamed
with liquor and knew nothing of what he
did, and is therefore not to be held ac-
countable for his deed, it will afford the
opportunity for saying with vigor that this
plea is altogether too much availed Of and
will not do. 1t has come to pass that
very large part Of the crime of the day
skull1s behind the whisky bottle. Whisky
in this country has been made the excuse
for crime in a multitude Of cases, most fire.
quentlY successfully, and but rarely with
out avail. The law that drunkenness is to
be taken as no excuse, ought to be strictly
construed. 1t IS all very fine to say that
the intent is a necessary basis for crime,
and that if one, from any cause, is so men
tally upset that he cannot entertain sane
intent, he cannot be guilty of crime. The
danger to society of such defenses, when
liquor Is the cause of the temporary de-
thronement of reason, is the fact that it
opens the door for cowardly rascals to for
tify their slender courage with intoxicants
for the express purpose of committing
crime. 1t is no uncommon thing for
man to drink himself up" to
Talorous point, which, in his normal con-
ditlon, he could never attain. It's a com
mon resort of criminal lawyers to save the
necks Of murdcrers and to rescue other
offenders from merited punishment While
no one can wish the innocent to be pun
ished, the insane to he held accountable,
or would deprive a prisoner of a single
right given by the law, and while we
would be the very last in the world to
prejulgc 4 case, yet as the indications
point in this murder of young Guindon to
the interposition of the excuse that whisky
caused it, it is in point and proper to call
attention to the remarkable frequency
with which this mantle is used to cloak
crime. The law says that "no act COM
mitted by person while in a state of
voluntary intoxication is less criminal by
reason of his having been in such condi-
tion. But whenever the actual existence
OF any particular purpose, motive or intent
Is n necessary element TO constitute any
particular species or degree of crime, the
jury may take into consideration the fact
that the accused was intoxicated at the
time, in determining the purpose motive
or intent with which he committed the
act" That is to say, voluntary intoxica-
ton shall not excuse, but may be consid
cred in determining the degree of the
crime. But even this application of the
plea is oftener than not twisted and warned
to make whisky, and not the man, respon-
sibie, and to work the complete clearance
of the latter. The way to put a stop to
whisky murders is for iuries to let il be
distinctly understood that firing up the
courage with liquor will not serve TO
shield offenders from the consequences of
their acts. In more than one community
justice has been outraged, and the law
made laughing stock by the ease with
which offenders escape through the meshes
Of the whisky plea. 1t is high time that
society took broader view of the respon-
sibility of men for their acts than that
There is more of wisdom than of wit in
the remark that has been frequently made,
"The way to the punishment of liquor
crime is to hang the man to get at the
whisky in him."