Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-10-16
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.


lead, has decided to abolish the gallows
as a means of capital punishment. and
will hereafter send her murdereds to the
death chair" And IL is said that efforts
will shortly be made in Connecticut to
inaugurate the same change, though the
movement has not yet started.
When "eleotrocution" was introduced
In the Empire State, the gravest doubts
concerning it's practicability were enter
tanned. As if to justify these fears, the
death" chair really made a poor job Of
its first victims, though we believe 1t has
since made done its work well. OF course,
there were no means of making expert
ments with the terrible invention, and
until it actually did it's initial work no
one could say just how successfully 1t
would operate.
All the other States in the Union still
cling tenaciously TO the gallows as a
medium Of capital punishment, though the
gibbet has many hideous features, and
is, at best, an awkward device.
The sentiment OF the whole civilized
world now appears to be rather averse
to capital punishment, though it is still
a necessity which cannot altogether be
abandoned. Indeed, the law writers up
hold it as n "sine qua non" in our body
polite. The late John u. Minor, whose
legal views are everywhere recognized in
this State, has expressed the opinion that
81 no. IN
seem for all generations, that homicide
should be punished by death. He quotes
that line from Genesis, which says that
whose sheddeth mans blood, by man
shall his blood be she'd" and also the
18th verse of 24th Leviticus. 1t is under
stood, Of course, that these injunctions
apply to murders, and not to accidental
killing.
Capital punishment was recently abol-
ished in Switzerland. and since this
change the Empress Of Austria met her
death in that republic at the hands of a
cowardly assassin, who gloats over his
crime Possibly if the gallows or the
death chair awaited him, there would
be less flippancy in his illusions to his
offence The Austrians were greatly dis
appointed when they learned that the
murderer could not be executed, and a
few days later their disappointment turn
ed to indignation when they learned that
the prisoner was allowed to smoke during
his confinement. But the Swiss promptly
stopped that and they will doubtless see
to # that the slayer of the unfortunate
Queen gets his full deserts, as prescribed
by their law
Alice Morse Earle, in her valuable book
on Curious Punishments Of Bygone
Days" laments the fact that America
deals so severely with her criminals. She
asserts that Belgium, Holland, Brazil,
Italy, Portugal, Guatemala, Venezuela,
and Costa Rica have wholly abolished
the death penalty, and that in cruel Rus
STA it has never been pronounced since
1888, save in cases of treason, while even
China has only eleven capital offences.
In our country we have sixtytwo crimes
punishable with death. and the authoress
expresses regret and modification at the
knowledge of the fact that in Maryland
Setting fire to a hay-rick is TO this day
punishable by death"
At the first glance It might indeed. ap-
pear that we are harsh with our crimi-
nails but as a matter Of fact it is just
the other way. In Virginia the jurors
are lenient in the extreme. and never ap-
pear TO forget for an instant that every
man is innocent until he is proved guilty.
while they assuredly give full weight to
the reasonable doubts" on which coun-
sci dwell so carefully. The condemned
man-if he happens to be one of the few
sentenced to death-generally gets the
benefits Of an appeal, and as a last re-
sort has the Executive to hear a petition
for clemency. Taken all In all. we think
the murderer has very little to justify
complaint. and whether he dies on the
gallows or in the electric chair, he but
gets his just deserts.