The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-03-02
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

He
Bills to abolish capital punishment have
been introduced in q number of state legis-
It Is easy to make sentimental plea for
the adjustment of the death penalty for
murder, but there are two arguments in
its favor that have never been met by
those who think that "the worst use you
can put man to is to hang him." First,
that will never do murder again. There is
no absolute security to society against the
assassin except to imprison him in the
narrow cell Of the grave; the only cell
that is proof against executives who per-
sist in believing that the power to pardon
public trust. If life imprisonment were
in practice what it is in theory it might be
worth while to discuss the propriety of
abolishing the death penalty; but in prac-
tice life imprisonment does not mean that
the cutthroat is Gagged for life and that the
safety of society against the assassin il a.
perfectly secure as it would be by the de-
StructlOn OF the murderer.
We are bound to give society as perfect
protection against human wild beast as
We do when We destroy that wild beast.
The death of q murderer 10 not assurance
that his fate will deter other vicious men
from committing murder, but it is abso-
lutte assurance that the particular MUIR
derer in question won't do it again. That
assurance that there 10 one wild beast,
one human tiger less in the world is some.
thing that society cannot secure with GER
tainty except by the death of the human
tiger. We can cage the human tiger, but
he may kill his keeper; he may kill some
OF his fellow convicts; he may break Jail;
he is almost certain to have his Jail broken
for him by the invocation of the pardon
ing power. Until life imprisonment in
practice a. we'll a. theory can be shown to
furnish society as perfect security for the
future against the particular tiger as the
death of the particular tiger. it is folly to
ask society to abrogate the death penalty.
In the second place the object lessons Of
experience do not establish the abolition
Of the death penalty as sound public
policy. Michigan abolished capital pun
ishment in 1s47, but the crime of murder
has not decreased and convictions have
not increased in that state. In the years
1887 and 1883 there were l07 murders com.
mitted in the state and only forty con.
victions were secured. or one convic-
ton to less than two and half murders.
In the city of Detroit last year twelve
murders occurred and ten of the perpe-
traitors were arrested. But Of these ten
murderers three have been acquitted, the
cases of six are still pending and one only
has been found guilty and sentenced to
life imprisonment. These facts do not
support the claim that the substitution of
life imprisonment for the death penalty
insures greater certainty in the conviction
Of murderers. Switzerland abolished the
death penalty and restored it because of
the increase of murders. The experience
of Maine and Wisconsin has been identical
with that of Michigan: the abolition Of
the death penalty insures no greater GER
tainty Of conviction Of murderers. Crime
increases. while the number of convictions
for murder decrease. In 1892 there we're
6.732 murders in the United States. and
only 107 legal infections Of the death
penalty. According to this showing one
person in every 10000 was murdered,
while only one murderer in every sixty
three and a half met the just punishment
Of his crime. The greatest living
English jurisis vigorously oppose the
abrogation Of the death penalty
upon the philosophic ground that of the
mass of persons who are likely to commit
murder, few would fear life imprisonment
compared with the many who recoll from
death on the gallows. This is the view
taken of average human nature by Shak.
spearc in Measure for Measure" where
he puts this opinion in the mouth of
Claudio, who. noble born and bred that he
is. is willing 10 let his sister purchase his
life at the price OF her honor. The average
murderer would accept the most painful
form OF life rather than the most painless
form of death. The living death of PRISON
life TO high-bred, intellectual man might
possibly be more dreadful than death on
the galiows tree, but as q rule the average
murderer is man that would pdssion atelv
prefer the penitentiary TO death and de-
posit in the narrow cell of a silent grave,
from which there is no release until the
srchangel's trump shall sound the assem-
bly, for the last Judgment.
In countries like England, where a muir.
oerer il pretty sure to be convicted. il the
evidence OF guilt is clear, he is certain to
he hung. and consequently murders are
far less common IN England than in the
United States This is no, because Grea.
Britain lacks eutthroas population, bu,
because juries are not disposed to be mer-
ciful 20 assassins, and because q convicted
assassin is sure IL lie hung. and As q rule
men ell the world over do no. like to be
hung. and are far more likely 10 refrain
from murder when they kno y that neither
jury nor executive have any indisposi,ion
10 hang murderers.
Very bad men hesitate long a, murder
where hanging is sure 10 follow convic-
ton, Who would feel far less the deterrent