The evening times., 1899-02-06
MURDERESS PLACE
STILL C0URTING HOPE
ANOTHER APPEAL TO BE MADE
Her Case to BE Carried to the United
States Supreme Court on COnsti-
tutionaI Grounds.

New York, Feb. 6.-There is still
shadow of hope for Mrs. Martha Place,
who was convicted Of numbering her step
daughter in Brooklyn in February of last
year. Her lawyers have decided to appeal
to the United States Supreme Court in her
behalf and to ask stay of execution pend
ing the decision of the appeal. In the de-
lay which would necessarily follow If the
stay is granted her friends hope to find for
her some loophole of escape from the cleo
trio chair
Il shall see Mrs. Place tomorrow" said
William F. Howe last night, land | shall
appeal her case to the United States Su-
preme Court on constitutional grounds. l
shall ask the court to grant delay in view
of the limited time before the date set for
the execution
Mrs. Place has been sentenced to die in
the week of March 20. She was first SEN
fenced in July of last year to be put to
death in August, but her lawyers took the
case to the Court of Appeals and a stay
was allowed. The highest court in the
State denied her new trial on January
10 and she was resentenced.
1t was hoped that Governor Roosevelt
would commute her punishment in view OF
the fact that no woman has been put TO
death in this State since the law of exc
cution by electricity went into effect. The
governor, however, let it be known that
in his opinion, the fact that a criminal is
woman should not be allowed to weigh
against the execution of the legal penalty.
He intimated that he had no sympathy
with the sentimentality which is some
times displayed toward murderers, and that
he thought the law should be allowed to
take its coIrSp unless Somp m cir-
cumstances or some error in the trial
could be shown. The governor also said
that he did not care to receive petitions
for clemsncy, and that he would decide
| every case regardless of popular appeals.
This definition of the governors position
closed the door of pardon to Mrs. Place,
| for though it has been urged that she is
OF unsound mind, no justification of the
| murder which she committed has been
brought forward. Nevertheless. much Ie-
| pugnance TO her execution has been dis
| played.
Il think that no woman should be exc
cuted." said Frederic r. Coudert last night.
The thought OF it gives a shock 10 the
community. Women are not allowed to sit
on juries. and TO see the whole legal ma
! chinery--courts, prosecuting officers, and
police-directed against one of them is not
agreeable. When women commit crime
| there is usually some man at the bottom
Of it. They are emotional and plastic and
| easily influenced
Il will not say that | am opposed to
| capital punishment, though | would like
TO see the experiment of abandoning il
tried. 1t has been abolished in several
places with varying results. | do not
think it has succeeded as a preventive OF
| crime, Its abolition would at any rate
prevent the errors which sometimes oc-
cur. Ii has happened that after men have
been executed other men have confessed
| that they were the real criminals. Such
executions are nothing more nor less than
murder"
Mrs. II. NJ. Sanders, president of the
League for Political Education. said thai
she believed sex should make no difference
in the punishment OF crime.
Il agree with Governor Roosevelt" saiC
she. What he says about the punishment
of women is right. They are asking t
share the responsibilities of men, ant
they should be willing to share the pen.
auties as well. | don't see why womer
should be allowed TO escape any more thar
men. 1t would be a dreadful thing if they
should be permitted to commit these
crimes with impunity.''
In opposition TO this view, the Societ,
for Political Study, which is an organiZa
luton declaring in favor OF clemency fo
Mrs. Place on the ground that as womer
are not allowed TO make the laws. the!
should not be held to the extreme severit.
of the punishments devised by men.