The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-12-05
The Law Places Premium on Crime
Of bo Itch

The Law Places a Premium on Crime.
10 the Editor of the Dispatch:
one of the questions which demands action at
the hands of the coming LEGISLATURE Is tne re-
vision of our criminal laws. AS at present con-
stituted and administered the people nave EtGie
OF no confidence in them. Theoreticaly IL IS OF
the utmost imI ortance in administering Grim
inal laws the penalty should be speedily inflicted
(Bl Com. Vol. w, p. n; NJ. l. Vol, III, p:39 yet
o,lr courts seem to act altogether on the Fabian
policy. it is the rule, not the exception, to see
the trial of murderer, whose victim mas Deen
speedily thrust into eternity contInued Iron
month to month in the lower courts on the
merest pretexts, and then drag on a year OF
two in the Court of Appeals. The people not IL
logically conclude that the whole system has
been invented to thwart justice by technical
trickery; so when foul crime has been com
mitted and the criminal has been apprehehdeea!,
punishment, they resort to lynch law. Ihus IN
the name of justice another crime Is commit
ted-a crime on Which the law thrOugn ltS SnorG-
comingS has put premium.
II is not saving too much to affirm that no re-
voting murder or rape sts tpa nenSsr 10
prevent the latter the prisoner must pc guarded
Specially at great expense to the state, keeping
the community in a constant ferment OF else
sent to the Jail of some distant city: LynchDurS
at the present time is a veritable City OF Refuge
it is generally supposed that in our state small
per cent of the deaths for crime occur by lynch
ing but an investigation has revealed the start
ling fact that in the last i've years n vlfg1nla
hangings The period of five years was taken as
as showing the present temper OF the people The
taken from the clerks of the county courts or
ninety-one counties in the State show fourteen
legal hangingS and seventeen lynch1ngS
I'VE cannot find room for this table, put we
give it in substances There were lynchings IN
Accomac, Bedford, Bland, Campbell, Dinwiddie
Highland, Loudoun 2, Nottoway. Patrick, Prince
Edward. Rappahanhock, Rockbridg;e, russell
ings in Albemarle2 Greensville 2, Loudoun2 z,
Norfolk, Pittsylvania, Richmond, Rockingham,
Scott2, Sussex and YORK
This condition of affairs borders on barbarism,
and strongly suggests the propriety or doctor
ing our laws and bracing up our courts unless
the State is to pass under the jurisdiction OF
Judge Lynch. The lower courts should be re
quired to compel the attendance Of witnesses
and to expedite trials; unanimous jury
should not be required, but majority of three
fourths of its members should find the verdict;
appeals in cases of capital punishment should
be allowed as a matter of right, be ready for
hearing in thirty days. and be decided by the
appellate court in ninety days. Appeals should
not go to the Supreme Court from districts, but
from all parts of the State direct to that court
wherever sitting, and be privileged cases at the
head of each docket. The Commonwealth's
cases would thus follow the Supreme Court and
be called first at the four terms OF the, court
The State of California has very wholesome
statute which might tend to expedite cases in
this State if adopted. 1T requires each Judge