Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-11-13
The Penalty of Crime.

The Penalty of Crime.
The appointment Of hearings before leg
islative committees for the purpose of list
ening to arguments in favor of the remit
lance of sentences imposed upon crimi
nails and the substitution of lesser penal
ties. brings the people of Vermont face to
face with the question whether the mem
mers of the General Assembly, who have
heard nothing of the testimony in the
case and who will now he presented with
the arguments favorng the condemned
without the consideration of the evidence
on which court and jury acted after
thorough investigation embracing an i'm
partial hearing of both sides, should take
the responsibility of interfering with the
course of justice. We have quoted the
opinions OF different journals protesting
against the course which has been pur-
sued during the past few years and in
sisting that the listening to appeals for
the remittance of penalties has served to
place a premium upon crime. Here is
what the Essex County Herald has to say
with reference to the subject:
There some things in the execution
of statute law that are absolutely es-
sental to the maintenance of it's efficiency
and to secure results from its provisions.
The law should be a rule of action pre-
scribed by the supreme power of the State
which shall be absolute. That is the most
essential requisite of statutory enact
ment. The certainty Of punishment under
it is the most deterrent thing about
it next to the rule itself AS a question of
abstract right and policy men differ as to
the right and propriety of taking the life
of an individual, even under the sanction
of enactments for that purpose. Practi
cally that is no longer an open question
in Vermont
THE right and propriety of executing
men for murder has been settled and
sanctioned by long practice in our State.
Whether or not such legislation should be
abandoned is an open question, properly
appealing at all times to the Legislature,
but until abandoned it should he applied
with absolute certainty to every case
which the judicial department had deter
mined TO come within the rule.
Take a situation. A man shoots down
his fellow man in cold blood. There is no
dpubl tpOdt HIS GhIil' his Jus iIO-
tive is beyond question and he comes
clearly within the rule which requires that
he shall be hanged. Another commits a
murder. Crhe executives Of the law go
about bringing him to trial, simply asking
him to submit to such fair investigation
as the laws provide) He openly defes the
authority of the law, renounces all obedi-
ence to society and its just rules He de-
lberately shoots down an officer Of the
law, thus holding in contempt and aban-
doning all his relations to society and the
law.
Now what is palmer than II his SEN
tence is committed to Imprisonment for
life that it takes the statute from it's solid
basis and its certainty of execution, and
places its execution not upon reason, not
upon just punishment. not upon the safety
of the public, nor upon any other sound
reason, but upon a sickly sentlmentalty
which substitutes Individual impulses for
the law itself? And thus not only weak
ems but abandons the law and all it's foun-
dations Not only that but if commu-
tation prevails as it has in years past it
presents the curious spectacle of the legis-
latiVe department of the government con-
stantly impeachng the judicial, and upon
precisely the same grounds on which the
judicial acted in disposing Of the case
And it is getting to be so farccal that the
wonder is that the people do not cry ou,
either abolish the law or execute it"
A man who was sentenced to State s
prison for shooting down the head of a
family in cold blood was recently par
dored in this State after serving about a
decade. If Shaw's sentence to death Is
commutod to Imprisonment for life, does
any intelligent man think for an instant
that long before his earthly race is rur
and when the dastardy character of hi.
crime is half forgotten the executive oil
Vermont will not be importuned to par
don him on the ground that his health /.
not as good as 1t might be, or that Their,
was great provocatiop for his crime oil
that he may some time in his life hay,
borne a good moral character2 Some PEG
pie seem to talk as If the whole purpos,
of the punishment of crime Is to try t,
reform the criminal. The first object o
law is to protect society and the mem
bers of the Legislature should bear thi
ever in mind when they are listening T.
one side of the story of a crime picture,
for the purpose of relieving a set of muir
derers from the penalty of crime.