The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-01-25
that the old Mosaic Law of blood fol
blood has died out?" l suggested.

blood has died out?" l suggested.
1T has faded away 10 4 shadow" he
replied. Practically, capital punishment,
is back number 1t is relic OF neoiae.
val times. 1t is already SO nearly abolish.
ed that we can perceive its early end
Only one hundred years ago We had
laws providing a death penalty for one
hundred and fifty different crimes. Now
only the crime OF murder car ries a pen.
| atty of death with il.
efar by year juries in murder cases
| are becoming more difficult to obtain The
vision OF the death penalty is becoming
more intolerabie 10 the ordinary Jury
and witnesses. The consequence is that
jury welcomes a perjurer in preference
| TO a truthful witness, because a perit;rer
| gives them an excuse for an acuuittal.
| The doctrine of universal love has
| grown and is yet growing amazingly.
| The idea Of killing a person is contrary
| to II. At the same time, l must admit
that crime decreases as the severity of
\ punishment increases"
How do you reconcile that idea with
your belief that the death punishment
should be abolished
III iHfS way, repileu hr. Osborne.
the more complicated, the more secret.
the more despicable murder is. the long
er the time that must elapse before con-
viction. Consequently, when the murder
has grown old no jury can be found. to
send the murderer to his death in cold
blood.
No one recollects the victim, but they
all do see the prisoner-his sufferings his
anguish and his tears. He is running a
race with death. and he is allowed TO win
IT, While the knife or revolver criminal
who commits his deed in frenzy. and
surrenders himself TO the authorities. is
sent 10 his death. the crafty and cool
headed poison plotter is released. This
is a perversion of justice
Therefore, say abolish the death pen
atty, because it is ineffective. Fine the
convicted murdered SO and let him GO
But done you think such law would
tend TO perpetrate a race of murderers?
Do You not believe that the present pois-
on wave Would be vastly increased and
that the crime of murder would be COM
mitted for more trivial reasons?''
Not a bit of it. What a feeling muir.
derer would have when walking from
the court room a convicted man, How
awful the retaliation tina. during his en-
IRE lie he would be an Ishmaellite
among his fellows, a man to be avoided.
to be Stunned like snake, to be pointed
at and whispered after. This would be
worse than a thousand deaths
The poisoning of Mrs. Dunning by Mrs
botkin was a forerunner of the Molineux
ha
the natural predecessor of the present
poison wave.
1t is wonder to me that there have
not been four hundred and fifty mysteries
in poisoning lately rather than fifty. when
all the efforts of the police and the Dis
trict-Attorney are regularly stultified by
time"
Mr. Osborne was asked to give an
opinion of the following sentence quoted
fl ON the decision of the Court of Appeals
in its reversal of the findings of the first
Molineux trial:
AS briefly as possible We (the Court of
have discussed each of the five
foregoing exceptions TO the general rule.
in the effort to exclude them one by one
from the case at bar"
L would rather not express an opinion
on that point" he replied.
why should the Court of Appeals make |
an effort to exclude and not to include |
them?"
Il do not know"
Would this excluded evidence have
madecon conviction certain?''
II think So
DO you not believe that poisoning Is
more womans crime than mans
crime?" / asked.
No. | do not believe so. The story Of
in this state does not prove It
at any rate There was CARLYLE Harris.
buchanan. Meyer. A large majority have
been men, from Borgia down Women
are too emotional to hold to one set pur-
pose. If they do hold to it they are gem
orally crde in its accomplishment"
What wpuld you suggest as the next
pest thing to the abolition of the death
penalty Mr. Osborne?"
Il think ii should be the effort of all
'ourts to support and not to tear down
he convictions of other courts Until
his is done convictions for murder by
'oison will continue to be a farce"