The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-04-14
The Death Penalty.

Senator Smiths bill to abolish capital punish.
ment is one that will meet with the warm ap.
prevail of an enlightened public sentiment. 1t is
full time that this lingering and bloody barbarism
was consigned to the limbo of other obsolete
medieval brutalites. The execution of helpless
should cease forthwith The State should be in
better business than emulating the worst type of
murderers-those who kill their victims with pre-
| medtation.-Troy Press.
These propositions are stated with such force
and fervency that one might almost be tempted,
without consideration, to regard them indis-
putable Our contemporaries plea for the aboli.
ton of the death penalty is creditable to its hui
mainly. The day that shall witness the abrOga-
ton of capital punishment, by consent of the
people. will mark great advance both in moral.
ity and civilization. But, although we all hope
for the coming of that day, few of us would wish
to welcome 1t before the conditions are suited to
its advent. When these conditions are such that
no danger will be invited to society and the
credness of life by removing the divinely sane
toned. immemoral penalty of murder then will
all good men hail the dawnng of a better time.
and the way will be preparing for the Prince of
Peace. Does the Troy Press seriously think that
the present conditions social, religious political
but. above all, politcal-justify the wpng out of
the death penalty in this State?-Albany Kncker
booker.
Certainly the Troy Press thinks so-it is
the inevitable logic of thinking. Those who
are swayed by prejudice instead of thought,
who are so Stagnant in their conservatism
as to regard any inn walton upon old. fash
toned ways as SacrilegiOus or so ignorant
of human experience as to imagine that
crime is lessened in proportion to the rigOr
of the penalties inflicted, may arrive at a
different conclusion. A decided majority
of those acquainted with the history and
effect of capital punishment. who have, in
brief, given the subject careful attention,
favor its abolition. And completely CIV
ilized man would object to its infliction by
the State. independent of these cOnsidera-
tions. He would scorn the proposition that
any conditions would justify the State in
Strengthening, with awful elaboration. a
helpless prisoner. whatever his otfense.
Blood begets blood. Nothing is so slim
ulating to the murder crop as thousand
cOlumned reports of trials and executions in
all their disgusting details by million
tOngued press. If the theory of the death
penalty were correct. the widespread pub
LEGATION of executions in all their horrors
would intimidate the blOOdthirsty. and
murder become as rare as it is revolving.
The KnickerbOcker knows that an exactly
opposite effect is produced-that it contrib
utes to dangerous mOrbidity of taste in
stead of to good citizenship. The sacred
ness of life is lesson that can never be
inculcated by its taking. In abOlishing the
death penalty, the State would then by
ofoCtlV0 example 0XalC CnlS SaCr6On0SS.
Capital punishment has been tried for
many centuries. and the result is that one
can hardly pick up newspaper without
reading of murders. Wipe out the death
penalty for one century, and murder would
be practically an obsolete crime. Every
decade would show gradual and crafty
ing lessening of this lethal Offense.
With prisons upon every hand to typify
the crudity of the race, it's wide remove
from ideal conditions, the theory that So
ciety can only be protected by killing
offenders is palpably indefensible. Muir
derers should be restrained for their own
good as we'll as that of society, for it is far
more frightful to be guilty of the crime
than to be its innocent victim. And right
here let us say that the influence of every
prison should be to educate and elevate
rather than to harden its inmates. If this
were the case penal institutions would not
be constantly sending out convicts whose
terms have expired to the commission OF
fresh crimes. Men who have made the
prison system critical study say that the
majority of prisoners leave confinement in
far more hardened condition than when
they reached it. AS we have often said in
these columns. two words comprehend in
condensed form the ideal prison SYSTEM
Restraint and Reformation. Meanwhile,
let the death penalty be abrOgated, and
beginning made in enlightened criminal
admnistratiOn.-TrOy Press.