The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-02-27
MURDER IN THE SECOND DEGREE

iberate and p~remeditated killing shall
be murder in the first degree, for
which the penalty is death" All other
murder is classed as murder in the Sec
snd degree, the penalty for which is
imprisonment in the states prison for
not exceeding thirty years. This law
should be repealed or the rules OF evil
dence modified. AS it now stands 1t is
almost impossible for the state 10 MAKE
eut d case OF murder in the first de-
gree. A man can be put on trial for
a most ~cold-bloOded murder and unless
the prosecution can show that the kill
ing was 'premeditated' as well as will
full and deliberate, the jury has TO
bring in a verdict OF murder in the
second degree. Before the passage OF
this act the state IN a case OF murder
charged the defendant with the kill
ing with malice a~forethOught. When
the killing was proven malice was pre-
sumed and it was incumbent on the
defendant to reduce the crime below
the grade of murder. Under the act
of 1898 the courts require the state TO
charge and prove that the killing wa
HillfuI. deliberate and 'premeditated,"
which is an impossibility in nine out
af ten cases where the killing is Of the
character which would amount to
murder under the former law.
The advocate of this act of 1893 at
the time of it's passage took the posi-
tion that it would prevent so man.
yerdicts of not guilty in indictments
Ger murder: that where juries before
would acQuit because of hesitancy to
send the man TO the gaI!ows, they
would. when given the opportunity,
find a verdict of murder in the second
degree. While this may have been a
result of this law in some cases there
h-s been another which had worked
great harm to our state The senti-
ment has become universal that no
man can be hanged for a murder, no
matter how atrocious, committed in
this state.
Our state has made q bloody record
in the last few years. Some horrible
murders have been committed and in
every case this act of 1898 has come
etwee the law and her just victim
and saved him from the gallOws be-
cause the state could not prove that
the defendant had deliberately made
up his mind before to commit the MUIR
der. Why should not the old rule of
evidence apply and the law presume
willfulness. elaboration and Dremedi-
tation as under the old law it pre-
stunned malice aforethought, which was
the necessary ingredient of murder as
distinguished from manslaughter or
5ustifiable homicide?
Something must be done to protect
the lives of the people. Life is held
too cheap. Men have come to think
that they have the right TO avenge per-
sonal grievances by taking the life of
their adversary on sight. Call to mind
the number of murders which hav
been committed in this state recent
Iy. The WilcoX-Cropsey case. where
the defendant was either entirely in
aocent or guilt OF Il most ~diabolical
murder. The Observation-Disclosures af-
fair at Fayetteville. The Stevenson
KILLER case. tried last week in Win
ston. where the defendant with anoth-
er lured the deceased to a lonely spot
and there killed him for the purpose
of securing a small sum of money he
had on his person. In all three of these
the state was unable to convince the
jury that the killing was premeditated.
and each defendant was found guilty
of murder in the second degree and
sentenced TO the pe~nitentiary. In each
one of these cases the Judge on the
bench gave the defendant the full limit
of the law. showing that in his mind
there were no mitigating circum-
stances.
To this list of murder is 10 be added
two that were committed Saturday,
one at Hamlet where a respectable.
quiet citizen was shot to death with
out having given the slightest provo
cation. The other was the horrible af-
fair which occurred on Fayetteville
street in Raleigh in which. according
to the evidence laid before the COM
uniting magistrate. Ludlow Skinner
was shot to death by Ernest Haywood
from behind. If Haywood had provo
cation it has not yet been given in
evidence what it was. We 90 not wish
to comment upon this case until
we hear the evidence of the other
side. but il IS hard 10 see how there
could be sufficient p~rovocation TO justi-
fly a man standing on the street and
shooting TO death another who is not
even aware that his slayer is in sight.
This case ana the others above re-
ferred to show how cheap human life
is held in our state. We believe the
act of 1898 is. to a large extent. re-
sponsibla for this, as IS also the pre-
vailing opinion. that a man cannot be
hanged IL this state, especially if he is
OF good standing and has money and
influence. This idea is the result OF
the many compromise verdicts by
juries and the General talk among the