Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-11

be made, by what method of reasoning
can it be justified in wautonIv depfiTIHg
. man OF his liberty which is more
precious, and after subjeefins him to
seriols loss and the contamination men
Toned, and falling TO make out a case
against him turn him adrift without
amends: / would not be understood as
assailing the wisdom of the grand jury
system, but after investigating the one
Thousand applications for pardon pre-
sented, many Of which are signed by the
court officials, jurfes and prom
inent citizens upon the alleged ground
that they believed file con-
Wet, while technically guilty was in re-
atty not criminal in purpose or by pre-
viotis conduct; and where the grand
juFies are shown TO constitute hot bed
so prolific IN a harvest Of costs to be paid
by the people in the end, feel that 1
should be FecFeant TO my duty and state
did I not invoke them TO
GREATER CARE AND PRUDENCE.
The practice obtaining in the system
whereby several indictments are permits
sible for what should constitute but one
offense, not only swells the volume of
costs bnt begets a manifest inequality of
punishment and lack Of even handed JUS
tiee so essential to reformation, which
Is the prime object of all punishment.
One instance Of very many coming under
my observation viii suffice to FIX the at
tention of your honorable bodies upon this
point. a youth seventeen years cid was
indicted and convicted for forging nine
small orders on his employer, and III nine
eases for utterIng OF passing them bat did
not in the nine orders reach the sum which
his employer justly and confessedly owed
him for services rendered. Yet he was
given thiTty-six years in the penitentiaPy
and was conveyed to the walls chained to
two hardened criminals, one Of whom
was convicted of horse stealing and sen
fenced for five years, and the other for
mansIaughter and sentenced for two
years. We may well conceive that the
conscious, unjust and diSpF0portionate
punishment would prove serious bar to
this boys reformation, and it is. TO be
hoped for the credit Of humanity and the
coed name OF our state that this proseeu-
ton was not prompted by a desire for the
fees accruing. But, at any rate, if the
state demands equity, Justice and right
doing as conditions of citizenship, it
should be scrupuIously exact in melting
out equity and justice TO its citizens. If
these things do moi foreshadow the de-
m0ralization of our judicial system, they
certainly indicate the speedy bankruptcy
OF the state and county treasures.
When l assumed the duties Of the exec
ntive Office there were 1853 eenvicts in
the penitentiary, and on December. 1888,
there were 1902. showing an increase of
443 IN spite Of deaths, discharges, par
dol1s and escapes. With a corresponding
ratio we maysafely conclude that by 1890
there viii be nearly or quite 1000. With
the present prison accommodations less
than 200e can properly be confined within
the walls, and nothing like that number
can be utilized at remuneTative prison
work. In view of this it appears to me
that a more careful
REVISION OF OUR PENAL CODE,
looking to a reduction of a large per-
centage of felonies to misdemeanors,
might possibly be step in the right di-
rection, and as it is conceded that the
intent and not the value of the property
stolen should be the basis of punishment,
the intent constituting the gist of the of
Tense. And since the spirit of justice is
so frequently outraged by the discrimina-
ton of punishment for crimes nominally
different but in reality the same, it seems
TO me that greater discretion should be
left the jury where mitigating ciTcum-
stances were found 70 exist, and the
accused technically guilty, to graduate
the punishment in due proportion to the
turpitude of the offense, instead as now,
having TO join the district attorney and
presiding judge in an appeal for exeeu-
tive clemency, as the only remaining
remedy for q wrong they were powerless
TO avert.
1t is with al due Difference that I ven
ture to make these suggestions to your
honorable bodies composed of so much
legal acunen, and with full sense of
the reluctance on the part of our people
TO adopt innovations upon time honored
statutes. But prescription should not
always render its testimony as conclusive
against truth, else the Oldest errors would
be sanctifed by time and rendered per-
petual by persistence.
There is some complaint in the state
shout the mTnifest inequality of the work
imposed upon the district judges. 1t is
with seeming truth, that while
some Of them are compelled TO labor
hard the entire year, others are not en-
ployed one-half their time, and all of
them receive the same salary. This
would appear unjust, and if it be deemed
advisable by the legislature TO make
more equal distribution of the work it
would remove present ground Of COM
plant on the part of those who suffer
from the discrimination