The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-04-11

knew all. The man was hanged, and In
lew days people will cease to talk about the
circumstance, so common have these lynch
ings become in the old settled countries of
the republic.
We wonder that our statesmen and legis-
lators do not see the danger in these fire.
quent defiances of law, and seek for the
cause with the view to the application Of
remedy They would not have far to hunt
for the cause, though the cure might not
be so readily applied. Everybody knows
why these lynchings take place. 1t is be-
cause the administration of our criminal
laws Is farce and a failure. Justice is
mockery in the courts and statutes are set
at raught by jurors. The average jury is
humbug, or it is criminal in its ignorance
of law and justice. II iuries were what
they should be, if they had respect for the
law and a decent regard for justice, lynch
| ings would be rare indeed, so rare that
when one occurred the surrounding COM
munity would be violently shocked, in
stead of as at present looking upon the
matter as something to be expected it not
approved and applauded.
In all but two or three of the states will
full murder is punishable with death. but
what percentage Of those who kill are
brought to the scaffold! A legal hanging |
is such rare event that it creates greater
excitement than a lynching. Within the
past two or three years perhaps dozen or
more men have been murdered in this ter
ritory, but not one of the murderers has
been executed In some of the cases the
proof of willful killing has been clear and
positive, yet iuries have acquitted the &C
cused or found them guilty of petty Of
Tense involving brief Imprisonment. The
other day in the district court, a killer was
found guilty of voluntary manslaughter,
whereupon the jury, as if regretting even
so light verdict in a.case of murder, petit
toned the court for leniency in behalf of
the convict. Judge ZANE, in denying the
motion for a new trial, conveyed in
, his decision if he did not express
it in direct words, establishment that
a new trial should be asked in the light of
the verdict. If the enforcement of the law
were what it should be the defendant in
the case referred to would not seek another
trial lest he be sent to the eXecutioner in
stead of the prison.
So long as juries shall fail in their duty
farces, there will be lynehlngs, and the
public will not punish the lynchers. The
New Orleans citizens would never have
|, thought of going to the parish prison and
Staying the murderous Italians if the jury
had performed its duty and convicted those
of the accused whose guilt had been estab
lshed with reasonable certainty. The law
had failed, the jury had done as other iuries
all over the republic are doing every day,
and society was so angered that 1t lost COLI
troll of itself, it forgot all the civilization
that it had learned, and going back to the
times when might was right, freed itself in
= the ouly way that it could be freed, of a
= few of Its dangerous members.
The Ohio victim of Friday mornings
= mob had killed policeman who was en-
avoring to arrest him. If the people of
- Kenton had not realized that hanging was
s'played out" if they had had confidence in
the law taking it's course and melting out
. justice to the murderer. there would have
been no mob and no lynching.
Something must be done to get better
. more intelligent and more courageous men
y to serve as jurors, or lynchings will multi
q ply as legal executions decrease in number.
r Communities will not tolerate the turning
a. of murderers loose because lawyers are
lg cunning and juries ignorant or corrupt.
is 1t is needless to suggest that every lynch
Oh ing makes it easier to gather another mob
~ of lynchers, nor to remark that where com-
munities disregard the law as in these
:, cases the tendency is towards savagery in
- stead of in the direction of higher civil
:. zation.