The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-03
SOME LAW AND LOGIC.

The story scattered abroad about the resuscitation or resurrection of the negro Tom Barsh, who was hanged at We dowee, has put the lawyers and logic clippers to discussing the old question as to the legal status of the aforesaid Tom. Suppose the story that he is still alive is true--whicn 1t is not--is he free man? Tn other words. has Tom been executed in the eye of the law?
 In pronouncing sentence on hin we as- sune that tho court sentenced him to be hanged by the neck until you are dead" as is the usual formula in such cases, We believe the old English form was that the prisoner be hanged "untA you are dead. dead, dead.' evidently in the belief that repetition of the work would ensure usually considered necessary here. It is supposed that if he is dead he can't be any deader. As old Ches.. Hay, in Ran dolph County. used to say: When a cows drownded she's dead" and when a man is hanged he is supposed to be dead legally and physically.
 But there's the hitch. If Tom has been restored to life. was he dead? Death means the total extinction of life, and If 1t was totally extinct could it be brought back by human means? Bodies have been cut down, or taken from the water, or taken up after some accident when life was entirely gone. so far as the ordinary observer could judge, yet in many such cases prompt and efficient work has coaxed back the spark and the victim lived. In such cases we must assume that death was not actually present but that we were deceived by its semblance.
 Former Attorney General Ayres of Vir- ginia in speaking of the Randolph County case. holds that Barsh. if living, is still in the hands of the law and can be legal ly hanged again. '"The court in pro- nouncing the sentence" MT. Ayres says, distinctly decided that the prisoner be hanged until he is dead" and he adds that 1t Is exactly similar to the case of Q man who escapes from jail and who. if recaptured, goes back and serves out his sentence. That may be law but we sub init that 1t isn't good logic. A man who escapes from prison does so by his own act. or through his own volition, and vio- lates the law by doing so. He has not paid the penalty for his original crime and that penalty hangs over him until it is paid. unless he dies or Is pardoned.
 In the case under discussion the pris- oner did not hang himself. It was not his act, nor is it reasonable to assume that he approved it. The court directed that he be hanged until he was dead. and the sheriff performed that duty. He was suspended until he was dead, according to the opinion of the medical expert Then, was the sentence carried out in such manner that Barsh, if living, can be hanged again? The Richmond Times Dispatch makes this point:
 Suppose this had happened in the days of miracles. Suppose this man had been actually raised from the dead as was Lazarus or the son of the widow of Main, or as D0rcas was raised by St. Peter. Would 1t be contended that the man could again be hanged, could again be deprived of his life?
 That view of the case naturally brings on more talk but we will let the lawyer settle it, if they care to. It is almost a pity that Barsh isn't alive. so that the matter could be settled, so far as Ala bama is concerned