The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-30

In sentencing three of the Bosschieter
convicts to the State prison for thirty
years at Paterson yesterday Judge Dixon,
who tried them made some remarks which
prove that he of all the people officially
connected with the case is the only one.
the public prosecutor excepted. who seems
fully to have realized his duty to society
and common humanity in the premises.
The attorneys who voluntarily took briefs
for the defence will for all time be
marked among their fellows as men who
have lowered the ethical standard of the
legal profession. That Paterson jury will
be long remembered for its moral cow
ardice and turpitude in allowing social
and business relations to obscure its
plain duty. When the outrageous and
murderous McAlister, Campbell. and
Death stood up for sentence Judge Dixon
said:
You stand convicted of the crime of murder
in the second degree The crime of which the
evidence proved You guilty murder in the
first degree, for you killed Jennie BOsschietcr
by administering a poison to her for the pur-
pose OF committing rape From time immemorial
the penalty for crimes of that magnitude and
character has been death But the leniency OF
the jury. which it had the discretion and au-
thority to extend, has saved you from the
gaows. and no further lenieney be expected
in this tribunal. whose proper function is not
to make laws. not to carry out personal senti-
ment, but to administer the laws.
1T is true that the penalty which I am TO
impose will destroy your lives. 1t will obliterate
every prospect once perhaps, bright before
you of becoming good and useful citizens. And
all for the deeds of that October night. cannot
make distinction among you, but | am not to
ton, hut to punish you for this crime, and
cannot that in the commission OF that offence
there was any difference among you. I trust
that the fearful consequences OF that night
may help to teach the young men and women
of this community that they cannot hope to Sc
cure happiness outside of virtue and honor"
Were Jersey justice" what it once was
the lesson contained in the doom OF these
wretches TO almost a generation of cease
less work in the company of murderers.
burglars, and thieves, who will shudder
with horror at their presence among
them. might be salutary enough to meet
the ends of justice. As 1t is, there are few
people who have marked the prevailing
Paterson Indifference to the unspeakable
enormity of the crime who do not expect
to see two of the three convicts-those
who have friends with money and political
infiuence-at large again within a few
years at most When Kerr, who had
pleaded guilty to assault. faced the court
the venerable judge. in passing sentence,
said:
THE evidence in your case did not warrant
the belief that you were concerned in the admin
istration of the drug but it did show that yoii
participated in the rsvishment of Jennie Boss
chieter and in the commission OF that offence.
in that fact t.re l. one feature that makes
YOUR conduct wo! y than that OF the Others. You
were an older man. Yop had more obligations
to society. You had Z. wife, worthy OF the puret
and highest affection. and children, whose vel
fare had been yCur constant concern. You ig-
nOred the lessons 81 experience. You broke the
ties that bound You TO home. iou permitted
yourself To drift away from domestic life and
love, and now you are en- the rockS OF vice and
crime
and such a erimel No wonder that its revela-
ton shocked the community. No wonder that Vt
stirred in every manly and womanly heart pity
and wrath But in ali that ghastly outrage you
had no -commiseration for the victim Of brutal
lust You threw her body By the roadside. reek-
less whether kindly human hands first touched it
or the fangs of dogs. Poor Jennie Bosschieier
How gladly would I spare your friends and
relatives! But human wisdom has not yet devised
way OF Furnishing the guilty and saving the
innocent from sorrow and suffering. cannot
withheld from you any lhelsure Of that penalty
which the law deems sufficient for your crime.
The Judgment Of this court is that You he impris
oned at hard labor for fifteen years
Sturdy old Judge Dixon is the one shin
ing character in the history of the famous
trial