The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-06
NO Eek IN CRIME.

for which the perpetrator, if legally sane,
is responsible and deserves punishment.
Granting that the slayer is found to be le-
galiy sane, she is guilty of great crime;
whether her offense is murder or man
slaughter. a great crime has been COM
mitted. Whether her victim was wise
or foolish man; whether he was useful
and valuable citizen, whether he was
worthy or unworthy of a better fate has
nothing to do with the punishment that
is the just due of his slayer, if she is pro-
nounced legally sane and responsible for
her actions.
Laws are made for the protection of
the virtuous. the bad and the indifferent,
of the worthy and the worthless, of the
rich and the poor. the weak and the
strong, the just and the unjust, the black
and the white, the pious and the profane:
for both sexes and all conditions Of life.
We DO not allow thieves or gamblers or
depraved people to murder and rob each
other, on the plea that society has suffered
no loss because an injurious member of
society has been robbed of his life or prop
erty. Nor does the law allow women to
kill men with impunity any moro than we
allow men to Kill women.
Let us reverse the case. Let us suppose
that within few minutes after Mr.. Boyd
and his reputed wife entered their apart
merts shots were heard, and, on entering
the house, the reputed wife had been
found lying dead and Mr.. Boyd standing
over her with a smoking revolver in his
hands, from which he confessed four shots
had been discharged at his reputed wife.
Let US suppose that the only excuse offered
for his frenzied act was that his reputed
wife had given him cause for jealousy, had
bitterly reproached him with his past life,
and his neglect Of her. Would there be
any large amount of popular sympathy
for Mr.. Boyd or conformation for his cruel
act? But let us suppose, further, that dur
ing the very few minutes which elapsed be-
tween the entry of the pair into the house
and the shots, no alteration had been
heard; that the dead woman had not
removed her hat or even unbuttoned her
street wraps; that she lay dead with a
cigarette half smoked. clenched between
her lips; that the whole appearance of
the corpse warranted the belief that Mr..
Boyd had commenced in cold blood to
shoot his companion full of holes the
moment that the pair reached their apart
ments; would not the public DO justified
in thinking that very possibly Mr.. Boyd
had murder in his heart before he entered
the house, ana that he lied when he
sought to extenuate his crime by pretend
ing that in the fury of bitter alteration
he had impulsively shot his concubine.
If Mr.. Boyd was the survivor of this fright
full tragedy his antecedents as to char
acter and veracity would be at least
as good as those of the woman who took his
life and who has now the full benefit of the
fact that dead men tell no tales. If Boyd
were alive and the self-confessed slayer of
his wife, he would be at least as credible a
witness as the woman who slew him, and
yet if the conditions were exactly reversed
how much sympathy. how much senti-
mental interest would be taken in a man
who was found alone with q woman's dead
body in the same condition as Boyds.
and who had no better story to tell in
conformation OF his crime than is told by
the slayer of Boyd?
There can be no such thing as sex in muir
der or theft or crime of any sort; society
knows that if sex be considered as a rea-
son for impunity or conformation of crime,
that we shall offer premium for female
er; mn VI oh
struments of great crimes. The soldier
shoots the squaw who points rifle at him
as promptly as he does her buck, and
society grants no impunity to murderers
and robbers on the ground of sex, because
it can not afford to do it. The fact that
the slayer Of Mr.. Boyd is a woman is
nothing to the law; to the law a criminal
IS sexless; the question is solely one
OF legal sanity and moral responsibility
for crime within the law. The woman
is entitled under the law to get as fair and
candid treatment as If the cases were re-
versed and her husband" whom she
welcomed with hospitable hands to a
bloody grave, was arraigned before the
courts as the seif-confessed slayer of his
wife," If it were Mr.. Boyd on trial for
his life. his legal sanity would be passed
upon, and the facts would be given to the
jury TO say whether or no he lured his
wife" to their home and then turning on
her like tiger, shot her TO death without
word.
Cut of even in the blossoms of har sin,
Uuhousei'd. disappointed, unane'd,
No reckoning made. but sent to her account
With all her lmpeEfections on her head
II this woman gets any more considera-
tion from court or jury than Mr.. Boyd
would he legally entitled 20 if the situation
were reversed, then she will get more than
her legal and equitable rights and senti-
mentalism will shove by justice. There is
no doubt great crime has been com
mi,,ed; there is very grave reason for the
belief that a most cruel, hear;less and de-
liberate murder has been perpetrated and
from the beginning TO the end of the legal
inquiry and decision there is no room for
any sucn rot IS the question as 10 the glory
OF shame of the dead mans past, o. IS to
the sex Of his slayer. Had he killed
her the comparative worthlessness OF her
character and career 20 society would
not have been considered for moment
or the alleged gravity of his provocstion.
Had Boyd killed. her and confessed IT..
nothing short Of the plea Of se,f-defeuse,
- $500 y l.