The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-05-01
Five Gents.
CAPITAL Punishment.

C6plLal Fun1Snments
The following essay ON capital punish
ment was written, says the Saltwater Mes
senger, by Miss Marion Crosby. of Hast
ings, aged ii years. daughter of Hon. F. M.
Crosby, one of the judges of this district,
and was published in the Hastings High
School Breeze for April. How many of
our Saltwater high school girls of the same
age could do as we'll?
One of the good signs of the times is that
earnest thinking men and women are begin
ming to realize how revolving is this relic of
barbarOus past, this assumed right of the
crime against justice in whose name it is
executed.
Justice, considered from a high moral
standpoint surely in matter so great as
one involving life and death we have no
right to view it in any other lght-de-
mands that at the trial of a criminal all the
eXtenuatng circumstances must be taken
into consideration. If this were always
done. the criminal would rarely appear in
so bad light as the government.
For instance, man commits murder, the
government, in turn, sentences him to
death. Here are two murderers; the ques
ton is which is the worse. The murderer
has probably inherited the vices and GRIM
inal instincts from his ancestors, his young
life has been warped by home association
with sin and degradation, while the public
nurseries of crime and vice have fed the
baser instincts and smothered the nobler
impulses. Probably his life has had so
little pleasure and enjoyment, and he
values it so lightly that murder does not
oxxJfr, 70 fx, ,.,1,o hoc
more to make his life happy and valuable.
These causes or some of them have operated
strongly in almost every case where the
criminal was neither intoxicated or insane
with anger; and so. inheritng such adverse
influences. thinking so little of life. we find
this wretch committing murder for which
he should be punished, not slain. Again,
on the other hand, we find the government,
supposed to be the embodiment of Justice
and wisdom. putting forth it's laws. the
very ideal of right and equity, taking the
life of this wretch and forever depriving
him of the chances of reformation. l say
this second murder is the worse. This is
not the sentimental, the merciful side, but
a practical, humane and just view.
The two aims of punishment are refor-
nation and protection. Any one can see
that you cannot reform a man by hanging
It'll, duu l. LIluk Ill Uu0S0 ClVlllZou UdyS
society can be protected without taking
human life. If this can be proven, the
only excuse for capital punishment is swept
away. Certainly it is necessary to protect
society from dangerous individuals and to
punish crime in order to restrain certain
class. but no thought of revenge should en-
ter into the punishment of an evil doer.
Retaliation belongs to an essentially savage
age.
There should be no punishment which
does not tend toward the reformation of the
criminal.
Because society must be protected from
madmen we would infer that the insane
must be killed. For what is crime if not
moral insanity? 1t has been shown that
capital punishment does not prevent mur-
der. and nothing has been more clearly
proven than that society can be properly
protected by penitentiaries. 1t is argued
that the pardOning power is too often
abused. 1t is an easy matter to restrict that.
Abolish capital punishment and make our
penitentiaries great moral and industrial
schools. where the inmates must work hard
and steadily at some employment, in itself
an ennObling influence.
This would surely be more in harmony
with our civilization than our present brutal
treatment of criminals.
This ever growing desire for Something