The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-21


at the evening services yesterday. Rev
Clarence t. Brown having previously
announced that he would preach on
Capital Punishment and Christian
ity"
The intense interest aroused by the
sermon was shown at the conclusion,
when it was decided. on motion of F..
Is. Stephens, that the sermon be prop
erly printed in order to insure for it
q wider distribution. A committee or
three was appointed to take the mat
ter in charge.
The text was. Eye for eye. tOotn
for tooth" Lev. 24:20.
'-Ye have heard that it hath been
said. an eye for an eye, and tooth for
tooth; but l say unto you. that We
resist not evil Matt. 5:3S, 80.
Love your enemies; bless them that
curse you; do good to chem that hate
YOU" ~
MIR. Brown referred in beginning, to
the execution of Coughlin and the more
recent sentence of doom upon Hayes,
the author of the Pelican Point atroci-
ties.
1t viii not do, he said, to dismiss this
lower stratum of society, with care
less disregard. The policy should be
remedial and not incline towards eX
termination by the extreme means of
the law
rs the underwood of civilization en-
Quires Victor Hugo, because ii is
deeper and more gloomy less important
than the upper? The study of social
iRfirInities and deformities, with a
view to their cure. is a sacred duty"
The under and the upper currents of
life cannot be separated. The fires that
burn into our modern civilization are
at the bottom, not on the upper sur
face. The remedy for our present evils
is a great problem. and certainly they
are not to be cured by the surface
plaster of capital punishment. When
these extreme measures of the law are
taken to correct evils, it involves GRIM
inal Jurisprudence.
The movement of our civilization has
been to carry US beyond capital pun
ishment. Modernism involves the cast
ing off of old forms and old methods
and the taking on of new. The an
Gent lex taiionis of the Old Testament,
with its twin accomplishments of po
iygamy and slavery, were long ago out
grown. These excessive and crude
methods of the Old Testament were
abrogated in the new.
Montesquieu wisely asserts that
''as freedom advances the severity of
the penal law decreases" In the law
Which has TO do with the punishment
OF crime there are four stages: First
The lex talionis. Second-Eye for
eye, tooth for tooth Third-Private
right Fourth--Public duty. There
has always been some attempt at bal
ancing the account between the wrong
doer and him upon whom wrong is in
fiicted.
The whole idea of capital punishment
is TO deter people through terror from
the commission of wrong. Torture is
its root idea. This was long ago
abandoned, for it was futile, unwieldy
and unjust. But the same argument
which condemns and annihilates tor
lure applies with the same potency to
the infiiction of capital punishment.
Crime can never be suppressed by
methods of torture for il thrives upon
severe penalties. The sentiment of the
world revolts against executions, and
public sympathy is aroused for the
victim whenever the death penalty is
inflicted.
The history of the punishment of
crime is a history in the evolution from
the most vigorous to milder methods of
prosecuting the criminal. In the DAYS
of George III the burglars and the
sheep thief found retribution on the
gallows- The hangman was the only
social physie ian. But the time when
all crimes were capital has passed. The
world has moved, and the death SEN
fences have grown fewer and fewer.
Murders, too, have in reality dimin-
ished in number. as the rigors of the
law have decreased.
Capital punishment is an uncouth
process. 1t presents all the poSsibili-
ties of hostile jurors and the conviction
of the innocent
In the desire to secure speedy pun
ishment, the possibilities of reform for
the criminal are ignored No chance is
left for moral correction or moral re-
formation for the perpetrator of crime
II is somewhat of paradox that while
the whole tendency of civilization has
been towards the diminution of capital
punishment. the amendment and con-
ISOLATION Of the criminal have been only
systematically attempted.
The watchword of the age is brother
hood and nothing does more harsh VIC
lence to this than capital punishment.
All political economy is being re-
written by the standards of the Sermon
on the Mount, and Christianity viii not
much longer tolerate the infliction of
the death penalty. If the criminal does
violence to the b5nd of brotherhood. it
is a shame &c the rest of us TO initiate
him with the violation called capital
punishment Man-killing is named
murder and criminal killing is termed
execution; but between them there is
little difference.
The remedial policy of the world
should be to Kill crime-not the
criminal
NJ. Brown spoke in conclusion of the
prevention of the crime and the in
fiuence of injustice. municipal corrup-
ton. the saloon end vile literature in
starting the evil-doer on his craven
course.