The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-25
Spirit of the Press.
MURDER IN THE SECOND DEGREE.
Wilmington Messenger.

The Legislature of 1898 passed an act
dividing murder into two degrees. IL
declared that killing by poisoning, etc.
''or any other kind of willful. deliberate
and premeditated killing" shall DE 9prder
in the first degree, "for which the penal
ty is death" All other murder is class
ed as murder in the second 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 This law should be repealed or the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 evidence modified. As 1t now
stands it is almost impossible for the
State TO make out a case of murder in
the first degree. man can be put on
trial for a most cold blooded murder and
unless the prosecution can show that the
killing was 'premedltated" as well as
willful and deliberate, the jury has to
bring in verdict of murder in the sec
ond degree. Before the passage of this
act the State in case of murder charged
the defendant with the killing with malice
aforethOught. When the killing was
proven malice was presumed and it was
incumbent on the defendant to reduce
the crime below the grade of murder
Under the act Of 1893 the courts require
the State to charge and prove that the
MINING W DIS WlllIul, uelIDSIdIe anu OI6-
meditated," which is an impossbility in
nine out of ten cases where the killing
is of the character which would amount
to murder under the former law.
The advocates of this act of 1898 at
the time of its passage took the position
that it would prevent so many verdicts
of not guilty in indictments for murder;
that where juries before would acquit
because of hesitancy to send the man tc
the gallows, they would, when given
the opportunity, and a verdict of murder
in the second degree. While this may
have been result of this law in some
cases there has been another which has
worked great harm to our State The
sentiment has become universal that no
man can be hanged Tor a murder, no mat
ter how atrocious committed in this
State
Our State has made a bloody record
in the last few years Some horrible muir
ders have been committed and in every
case this act of 1898 has come between
the law and her just victim and saved
him from the gallows because the State
could not prove that the defendant had
deliberately made up his mind before to
commit the murder Why should not the
old rule of evidence apply and the law
presume willfulness, elaboration and
reconciliation as under the old law it
presumed malice aforethought which was
the necessary ingredient of murder as
distinguished from manslaughter or
justifable homicide?
Something must be done to protect the
lives of the people. Life is held too
q
they have the right to avenge personal
grievance by taking the life of their
adversary on sight. Call to mind the
number OF murders which have been COM
m1tted in this State recently. The Will
cox Cropsey case, where the defendant
was either entirely innocent or guilty
OF most diabolical murder. The UtIey
HollingsWorth affair at Fayetteville.
The Stevenson Miller case, tried last
week in Winston, where the defendant
with another lured the deceased to a
lonely spot and there killed him for
the purpose of securing small sum Of
money he had on his person. In all
three of these the State was unable to
the jury that the killing was
premeditated, and each defendant was
found guilty of murder in the second de-
gree and sentenced to the penitentiary
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 was no mitigating circum-
stance.
To this list of murders is to be added
two that were committed Saturday ono
at Hamlet, where a respectable. quiet
citizen was shot to death without having
given the slightest provocation. The
other was the horrible affair which oc
CURED on Fayetteville street in Raleigh
IN which, according to the evidence laid
before the committing magistrate, Lud-
low Skinner was shot to death by Ernest
haywood from behind. If Haywood had
proVocatlon 1t has not yet been given in
evidence what it was. The Messenger
wrote before the publication of the testl-
mony of Mr.. r. N. Sims and the colorcd
mack driver.-Editor.] We do not wish
to comment upon this case until we hear
the evidence OF the other side, but it is
hard to see how there could be sufficient
provocation to justify a man standing on
the street and shooting to death another
who is not even aware that his SLAYER
is in sight
This case and the others above refer
red to show how cheap human life is held
in our State. We believe the act of 1885
is, to large extent, responsible for
this. as is also the prevailing opinion,
that man cannot be hanged in 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 people and in the press to
that effect.
Something must be done to check this
growing evil. Good results would come
from a repeal of the act of 1898, and the
hanging of men who commit deliberate
murder whether they be rich or poor Of
high social position or of the criminal
class.
Since the above was put in type news
come to us from Charlotte that Bishop
gets five years in the penitentiary for
the killing of Wilson. A man in the de-
Tense of his home and his family against
the unwelcomed presence of an undesirable
acquaintance is shot down in his parlor
by the man who has intruded upon him