The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-02-13
EFFICACY OF DEATH PENALTY.

EFFICACY OF DEATH PENALTY.
Does the death penalty have deter
rent effect upon the commission of
crime? This, is problem that the world
has been studying over for centuries and
apparently the solution is no nearer at
hand than ever, so far as the decision of
civilized governments is concerned. Sur
rounded with the awfulness of death it
self, the preparation for public execu-
tion of a criminal are Of most gruesome
and horrid nature. Yet since the
second man killed his brother, down
through all the centuries TO the present
day, no torture, no punishment, carrying
with it the judicial taking of life as a
punishment of the guilty and as
warning TO others, has been
sufficient to bring this kind of crime
to an end. The execution of Valiant.
rapid as it was from the date OF his
attempted wholesale murderto the last
act in the tragedy enacted before the
gaping multitude in the Place de la
Roquette, did not prevent the repetition
of his crime yesterday by another
member of the anarchistic fraternity.
The murder trial of Sawtelle had hardly
closed before Christie Warden's young
life was taken. The suicide of Sawtelle
practically answered as judicial
taking off; the execution of Christie
Warden's wretched murderer, Amy,
had hardly taken place before the same
State had three other murderers to deal
with.
Society by its clinging to the death
penalty confesses that it has made no
progress in the prevention of crime.
The awful scenes that are enacted when
the electric chair is called into requisi-
ton send thrill of horror through the
entire world vet the electric
chair still claims its victims.
The primitive and oft-times blundering
gallows, with the horrors of the death
march to the scaffold, have not as yet
succeeded in creating such a terror in
the minds Of the public that murder is
unknown. On the contrary, in the States
where capital punishment is in vogue,
crimes of this sort are most frequent.
Take the case of valiant. The death
penalty placed him prominently before
the public. During the few days that
he had to live his every act was chron-
icled in the public press. To the class of
which he was member he appeared in
the role Of martyr He was for the
time being the most conspicuous man
in the world. His death was painless
and his life went out while thousands
of his fellow countrymen shouted last
good by to him in the shape of cheers
in reply to his exhibition of nerve. Had
the quietness and oblivion Of the prison
or the galleys awaited him his
glory would have departed and he
would have become nameless
wretch condemned to spend weary years
in almost ceaseless toil-in the world.
yet not Of it.
In regard TO the ethical side of the
question, man assumes much when he
gives TO the law the power of life and
death. A legal execution is but another
murder under the sanction Of the law.
The eye for an eye and tooth for tooth
regulation, n relic Of the Jewish dispen-
sation, is hardly the correct mode to fol-
low at the threshold Of the twentieth
century. "fhou Shalt Not Kill" was
the Divine command given through
Moses 10 the world. II was plain
prohibition, neither modified nor amend
ed by any provision for judicial
killing. The law OF capital punishment
takes no cognizance of Divine law, but
simply of the laws of man. The mur-
derer is hurried before his Maker with
the weight OF a great sin upon his soul.
We recognize our responsibility to a
certain extent by extending or Offering
"the privileges Of the church" 90 the
murderer during his last hours. but this
having been done. our skirts are cleared
and our responsibility is at an end. Man
arrogates TO himself the right that God
himself did not assume in the
case Of the first murderer. Yet
statistics show that crime Is not
lessened in the civilized communities
by the dread Of capital punishment.