The record-union., 1897-11-13
THE CASE OF DURRANT.
Sensible Comment on the Supreme
Courts Action.

Sensible Comment ON the Supreme
/ Courts Action.
The San Francisco Post" of last
evening contained the following edito-
rial, which is so filled with sound sem
timent that We reproduce it in full:
! To the lay mind the battle-door and
shuttle-cock of legal proceedings in the
Durrant case appears to flow out of ir-
reconcilable differences between the
opinions of various courts of the coun-
try concerning matters of law, and yet
it is i thousand times better that Dur
rant should not be hung, guilty as he is
of the most atrocious crime of the CEN
| tury, than that he should be hung by
any other than perfectly legal pro-
cess.
! The liberty of every citizen is involved
in the proceedings relating to the Dur
rant case. If he can be expected by any
other method than one in strict COM
! formity with all the safeguards of law
which have been thrown around the
/ liberties of citizens, then his pretended
! judicial execution would be no better
than the taking of life by mob violence.
|
form: If every requirement of the law
in the case of an accused or condemned
man is not strictly fulfilled, the execu-
tion OF the condemned man, however
| hedged about with pretended forms, is
| and becomes in its nature a lynching
| proceeding.
The Supreme Court of California has
| 1,rbio CHI
commend it to the gratitude of this
commonwealth as in granting the Ger
tificate of probable cause" and staying
all proceedings until further orders by
the Supreme Court itself.
Upon telegraphic informat ton of the
action of the Supreme Court of the
| United States, Durrant was brought
| into court and his execution ordered to
take place within forty-eight hours,
and this before any regular judicial in
formation had been filed in the courts
of the State concerning the action of
the Supreme Court of the United
| States.
This Durrant case has tainted the en-
| tire moral atmosphere if this State.
| Sensationalism in one at least of the
| leading journals of the country has de-
bauched ell the finer and more delicate
sensibilities of our people, Durrant has
! but one life. He is in the custody of
the law, kept in close confinement The
| intensity of public attention to his case
has been unwholesome in the extreme.
| 1t has produced the spectacle of the
| two millions of citizens who reside in
/ California thirsting with fierce eager
ness for the blood of this one poor mis-
erable medical student. That Durrant
will eventually be executed and that he
viii deserve that sacrifice of his life in
atonement for offended justice does not
admit of doubt: but, thanks to the
calm, dignified and Independent judg-
ment of the supreme tribunal of this
| State, when he is executed it will be a
| judicial execution sanctioned by all the
forms of law and consistent with civil
lied ideas of Jurisprudence.
/ The precipitous action of the Superior
| Court is wholly incolnprehensible 1t
was inconsistent with that deliberation
| which the magnitude of the issue in
volved demanded, and, as shown by the
opinion rendered by a unanimous su-
| preme, judicial tribunal, was in contra
| vention of statute law What purpose
of justice was to be subserved in pass
| ing new sentence of death and giving
| a time-limit of forty-eight hours? DO
| the people of California grudge this
miserable felon a few more days in
! which to breathe it's free air? Is there
any great principle of civil liberty or
| human progress dependent upon this
| execution to be lost if the execution is
delayed a few days?
The vice of sensationalism never ha d
| a better illustration than in this un-
toward haste of the Superior Court.
| Public thought is feverish and abnor-
NAL almost to the point of insanity, and
the court appears to have caught this
spirit to the extent Of sacrificing all dig
nified deliberations. When sensation
alism can so work upon public feeling
| that even the courts of the land are
caught up and swirled about by its cv-
clones, 1t is certainly high time to call
| a halt.
The action of the Supreme Court has
done much to restore that normal state
of public thought in which the rights of
every citizen find added security. All
honor to the tribunal which amidst all
| the attendant temptations of Irregular
and Illicit passion in the public mind
can SO preserve the genius of civiliza
ton and the highest attributes of eter-
nal justice.