The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-01-23
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.


legal and judicial reforms, has taken steps
looking to reform in the method of admin
istering capital punishment The subject has
been much discussed in its different phases,
some favoring the total abolition of capital
punishment, others its extension so as to en-
brace other crimes than murder, while very
many have advocated the adoption of swifter
and surer means of producing death than that
of hanging and especially less of the sensa-
tional and newsmongering in its infection.
The inquiry in New York relates to the best
method Of indicting the death penalty. About
a year ago a commission of three was appoint
ed under an act of the General Assembly to
Investigate and report upon the subject, and
they have just completed their work. Their
report is quite voluminous, and is doubtless
the most exhaustive treatise on the subject
over prepared. At the outset of their investga-
ton the commission prepared circular solic-
iting viewe the present mode of punish
rent, asking for observations made at hang
ings, and or suggestions in regard to some
more humane method. Suggestions were
also invited in regard to the disposition of the
body of the person executed, with a view of
increasing the deterrent effect of capital
large number Of persons who might be sup
posed to have intelligent views on the sub
ject including judges. district attorneys,
sheriffs, physicians, etc. About two hundred
xeplies came, of which eighty were opposed to
change, eighty-seven favored electricity,
eight poisons, five the guillotine, four the
garrote, and the rest were scattering" AS to
executions in European countries it was found
that the following use the sword, viz: Italy,
Prussia and fifteen cantons of Switzerland;
the guillotine is used in Bavaria, Belgium,
Denmark. France, Hanover, Saxony and four
eantons of Switzerland, and the gallows in
Austria, Holland and Portugal. Russia uses
the musket, gallows or sword, and China the
sword or cord. These five methods are the
only ones now in use. The commission re-
CARDS them all as Objectionable. The guillo-
tine is criticised as too bloody, the garrote too
barbarous shooting as too uncertain and re-
voting, except in military executions, and
hanging is condemned for several reasons.
One is that resuscitation has been of not rare
occurrence; another, the revolving scenes at
hangings that are bungled; another, the pub
lie horror and revulsion against hanging
women. Some of these objections would be
obviated by making executions strictly
private, as they ought to be, and
IL.
any method of public executions. The re-
port favors electricity as the most instautan-
eous and painless means of producing death.
1t is declared to be the most potent agent
! known for the destruction of human life; so
powerful, indeed, as to cause death without
sensation. The velocity of the electric cur
rent is so great that the brain is paralyzed; is,
indeed, dead before the nerves communi-
cate any sense of shock. Professor Helm
holtz estimates the interval necessary for
nerve communication with the brain at one
tenth of second. Professor Tyndall estimates
that an electric discharge occurs in one hum
dred- thousandth of a second, or ten thousand
times more rapidly than nerve transmission.
Thus criminal executed by electricity
would literally be dead before he knew it.
The report discusses the details of administer
ing the current by means of an electrical
chair, ETC., and finds it entirely practicable
and Quite inexpensive. The commission
therefore unanimously recommend the aboH-
ton of hanging and the substitution Of cleo
tricity for the execution of criminals, and
that the necessary machinery and appliances
be introduced in the several State prisons of
New York.
The conclusions of the committee on some
other features of the death penalty are of gen.
eral interest AS to the deterrent effect of
capital executions, they say:
''One of the principal reasons why, at the
present time the punishment of death by
hanging appears to have so little weight in
preventing the recurrence of the crime for
which it is inflicted arises from the fact that
too often the body of the criminal, after
death is handed over to his relatives and
friends and treated by them as that of
martyr. The most disgusting scenes OF this
character have occurred, especially in the city
of New York. After an execution has been
duly performed with all the solemnity of the
law. the friends of the deceased, his COM
panions in crime and his sympathiZers In its
commission, having procured the oouy 1roLu
the sheriff, indulge in the most drunken and
beastly orgies Eulogies of the deceased are
pronounced as if he were martyr. instead of
executed criminal His evil deeds are
glorifed into acts of heroism And, so far
from the punishment inflicted operating as
deterrent, the very boldness with which he
marched from the cell to the scaffold is ex-
tolled an act of heroism and an evidence of
courage and vaor.
Now, if instead of this, the executions
were TO take place in private, in presence only
of the necessary officers of the law to insure its
infection and to preserve proper record
Thereof, and Immediately thereafter post
-no-tem examination were to be made of the
body and the latter were then to be delivered
10 medical men for dissection. all interest in
the criminal would cease practically with his
Ia toA %, 81. To