The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1902-03-05
A TEST CASE.

tlon no one has ever yet suffered the
extreme penalty for that awful crime
by "due process of law" Whenever
person has been charged with aud
indicted for capital offense, there has
been a miscarriage of justice in the
courts, or If conviction was secured
and the death penalty pronounced
the Governor has interposed commu.
tation before the mandate of the court
could be executed, and the murderer
has escaped the gallows in that way.
AS result, hundreds, if not thous-
ands, in Lincoln county have come to
believe that no matter how many peo-
pie man may murder, or what high
crimes he may commit, there is no
danger of his being hung by the "due
process of law" aforesaid. AS another
result of an this, for long time there
has been nothing of account which is
quite as cheap in Lincoln county as
human lifethat which man can take
from his fellow creature in the twink,
ling of an eye, but which only the ON.
nipotent Creator can give.
A case is now before Gov. Longino
his first from Lincoln which will
test, in the fullest degree, his ability to
rightly and firmly deal with such a sit
uation. A man of notoriously bad
reputation, whom twelve of his peers
have found guilty, after fair trial, of
numbering in cold blood one he swore
on the witness stand was as good a
friend as he had in the world-a man
against whom there is now lying in the
Circuit Clerks office another indict-
ment for murder previously com
mitted-is within a few days Of the
gallows, with apparently nothing be-
tween him and the death penalty pro-
nounced by the courts, but the Gov
ernor's clemency. Every man in Lin
coin county who has murdered his
man and every one who would like to
murder somebody, is on the tip-toe of
expectancy to see how the Governor
will stand the test with such a clear
case as this before watching to
see whether he will hands off, or cause
another miscarriage of justice, which
will confirm all former precedents.
A petition containing somewhere
about thousand names is about to
be presented to the Governor, asking
him for communication of sentence to
life imprisonment. Some of the sign
ers of this petition are among the best
and most orderly citizens of the coun-
ty who, from considerations of sympa
thy for the near relatives of the con-
demned man, something precious and
praiseworthy in itself, have been in
fluenced to act against their better
judgment. Some of them have been
heard to say they so acted. Back of
these petitioners, however, of whatever
class they may represent, are the great
body of the orderly, law-abiding citi
zens of the county who, like the other
classes referred to, are deeply interest
ed in the action of the Governor.
They have not made known their SEN
timents and judgment to His Excel
lency in the form of petition. but
they are intensely concerned and IN
terested, lest he should by some mis-
representation or mischance be in
tiuenced to blunder at the expense of
justice and wholesome public regard
for the law and the courts.
: What will the Governor really do
THE LEADER has believed all along and
still believes Gov. Longino, who knows
quite we'll the true situation here,
will allow the law to take it's course.
The whole power and trend of his
splendid administration has been on
the side of the better enforcement of
law and a healthier and stronger pub
lie sentiment in this direction, and he
is not likely to reverse himself in so
conspicuous case as the pending one.
The Governor will be equal to the test