The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-01-23
LEGISLATIVE TOPICS.
Abolish Capital Punish ment.

General n. NJ. Curtis in the ma
tional house of representatives: The
severe penalties of our laws defeat
the ends for which they are enacted.
With penalty which men of humane
sentiments can not infict, and therefore
are excused from jury duty, places the ad-
ministration of our criminal laws in their
! final determination, in the hands of the
Stoical and Indifferent. Judges say that
of men drawn on jurieS, from one-quarter
TO three-fourths of the number, generally
the most intelligent, are excused because
of conscientious scruples against the in
Fiction of the death penalty, and as a con-
sequence the panel is composed of men
least qualified to decide the important
questions submitted to their determina-
tion. The object of the law Is defeated
when it gives to any man on his own mo-
ton power to excuse himself from per-
forming the highest and most important
duty pertaining to the enforcement of the
laws. Last fall, in the of city Denver, on
the trial of a man charged with the mur-
der of woman, in which trials convlc
tions are ten times more certainly OBJ
tained than in those for the murder of
men, of twelve hundred drawn, eleven
hundred We're excused because of their OBJ
jections to the inhiction of the penalty of
death Canning better knew the impulses
of the human heart than his staid aSso-
cites In parliament when he assured them
1T Is vain to suppose that jurors will
enforce laws which are repugnant to the
best feelings of our nature" Sydney
Smith gave the true standard by which
to afiix efficient punishment: 1.-The eff
fcient maximum of punishment Is not
what the Legislature chooses to enact, but
what the great mass of the people think
that maximum ought to be-" Legislators
have dsregarded the demands for n re-
vision of our laws until we have been COM
PEELED to enlarge our pententiaries to re-
ceive the dupes of great criminals, while
the teachers. through the imperfection of
our laws, and not by any means thos in
efficiency or neglect of the officers of JUS
tice, are enabled to escape It's penalties.
The defeat of the law in its proper en-
focement against a single offense tends to
it's decentralization in every part. Take
away irredeemable punishments, so that
no man can, by stating his honest convic-
tions or falsely representing his sensbil
| tiles, excuse himself from jury service
When this Is done, and not till then, you
may discard that absurd fiction adhered
| to in II free nation, that has no classes,
with all the tenacty of the barons when
| the crown and royalty oppressed the
| yeoman and the vassal. Remove from our
| practice the absurd provision that the
| prisoner shall be first secured against the
| enmity Of the state; give him a sufficient
number of challenges, to insure the exclu-
sion from the jury of all who knew him
and might be prejudicel by knowledge
of his past life, and fill your jury boxes
with intelligent, fair-minded men, so that
| il shall not be, as within a short time,
when an intelligent laborer was excused
because he read "a daily paper, and one
who could not read and did not know The
name of the mayor of his city, or the name
of the governor of his state, or of any man
who had been its governor, was accepted
to sit on n jury impaneled to try man
| charged with the crime of murder.