The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-12
A BRUTE AND HIS CRIME.

The New Orleans Times-Democrat dis cusses at some length the action of the Philadelphia court in the case of the negro, Lane, who murdered a woman and two children in that city some days ago. In this case the negro plead guilty. the Judge accepted the plea and pro- nounced the sentence of death without the intervention of jury. The exaniina- ton lasted only about one hour and half. The Times-Democrat says:
 This is a somewhat novel process in the administration of modern justice. It has been the custom of courts to refuse to accept pleas of guilty in capital cases. but to require the criminal to enter plea of not guilty and to go through the unnecessary process of impaneling turies and listening to the sophistrics of smart lawyers to determine whether paipapie truth is or Is not true. The advantage of the ordinary process from the law yer's point of view is that 1t advertises his ability to protect criminals, aud at the very least to give the scoundrcl a respite from the justice of the law. The crime, 1t will be remembered, was one of peculiar atrocity, and one for which there was not shadow of excuse or defer ce. The negro had been robbing his employer, who was well-to-do wo- man ,and when his guilt was discovered, he murdered the woman and her two lit- tie daughters, either out of revenge for the disclosure of his guilt or with the hope of silencing the witnesses against him, though he must have known that the later and greater crime would be found out. His own acknowledgement in court settled his fate. but, as The Times Democrat says, it is unusual for court to allow criminal to convict himself, and we cannot avoid the reflection that If the offender had been a prominent, in fluential and wealthy citizen, his plea of guilty would not have been allowed, and regular trial would have followed which might have been spun out into months, if not years. with a possibility of final failure to punish But without discussing this phase of the question, we commend this comment of The Times Democrat:
 It Is to the credit of the Philadelphia judge that he ''cut out" all of this nom sense and converted his court into a | temple of justice. not an advertising de- partment for the smart lawyers of that | tribunal. The smart lawyers and the criminals suffer by this innovation, of course, but the administration of justice and the deterring of crimes makes a long step forward. Should this common sense system be generally adopted. the occupa- ton of the lyncher will be gone The only possible excuse for lynchlng will dis appear under this prompt application of justice, and Judge Lynch will become un- popular even in those sections where he is now regarded by many as a certain dis penser of even-handed justice.
 The salutary effect that such prompt measures would have in preventing lynchings is point worthy of serious consideration by all thoughtful people. We all know that one of the arguments used by mobs to justify their acts is the plea that the courts are so slow and un- certain that justice is not only delayed, but frequently defeated entirely, and this is used as justification of lynching. While this does not justify mob law. it explains 1t, and the prompt trial and sentence of undoubted criminals, as was done in the case under consideration, and the prompt execution of the sentence, would effectually deprive would-be lynch CTS of one of their strongest arguments. It is probable that exceptionally out rageous crimes may be followed by lynchings in some cases, but the courts af af selves of the charge of furnishing an ex- cuse for mobs.
 In connection with the brutal crime of this Philadelphia negro The Times of that city. in casting about for some reason for the negro's apparently unnatural ferocity. suggests that it may be a re- crudescence, so to speak, of the native savagery of the negro's ancestors. Genera tions before this negro Lane saw tho | light, his forefathers were almost as wild. merciless, lawless and inhuman SIS the gorillas of their native country, and The Times argues that this savage trait, after so many years, turned up in Lane and for the time being made him as thorough a savage as was any of his forbears, and our contemporary intimates that the mur- derer would be a good subject for the scientists to study that they might en- deavor to trace out the cause of his mur- derous acts. Such an investigation might be interesting, but we are of the opinion that the study should be made after tho negro has been operated on by tha nuhlic executioner
 
 The saying that we do not always know just what we are eating is sustained by the fact that much of tho canned salmon we buy is really Mississippi River cat fish. These arc shipped to Northern can neries where the flesh Is colored and