The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-08-09
Tie REGRETS
S,LO|''TH|.I..O|'.'|f|; |. A \ \.
President Would Like More e
Summary Punishment for
Criminal Assault.
RESPONSE E FOR LYNcHlN|G |! 6
Refuses to Commute Death Sem en-:
tence OF Negro and Isstes 3
Strong Paper.
ss(By Associated Press

a yWAsHTN GTON, Il August S.--Presidentt
Roosevelt has declined to interfere re IN
the case Of John w. Burley. a negro. con- CO n;
fined in The jail Of the District OF Colum-
bin under sentence Of death for the crime
Of criminal assault, the victim having
been a. little girl Of four and a half years
old. s,S IL s
President Roosevelt ma de the following
statement: "a Is e5,8 q
y .srW hite House
..Washington, August 8. 1904. ~
..The application for the communication
of sentence of John w. Burley is denied.
This man committed the most hid eons
crime known to our laws, and twice be-
fore he committed crimes Of a. similar
though less horrible cha racter.
"In my Judgment, there is no justi flea y
ton, whatever. for paying heed TO the
allegations that he IS not OF sound MINI.
allegations made q fter the trial ana con
}viction. Nobody would pretend that there
has ever been any such degree OF mental
.unsoundncss shown as would make peo-s;
pie even consider sending him to an asy-'
ilun If he had not commit ted this crime
"Under such circumsta nces, no should.
certainly DO esteemed sane enough to,
suffer the penalty for his rnonstrous deed q:
I have scant symRat hy wi 18th tho plea o..
insanity advanced to save q man from
the consequence Of crime, when. unless
that crime had been committed. 1t would
have been impossible to .pers de any
responsible authority to commit him to
an asylum as insane. 3%4s 81 ss 5ss
Among the most dang Gus criminals.
and especially among those prone to COM.
|, init this particular kind OF tense. there
are plenty Of a temper 50 fiendis or SO
brutal us to be incompa Il BILE Wit any
other than q british order OF INTEL gence;
but these men are nevert heless RESPONSE
bic for their acts; and thing more tends
to encourage crime among such men than
the belief that through the plea OF In
sanity@or any other met hod. 5is possible
for them to escape paying the Just pen en-;
atty of their crimes. s5i5 4
1.-THE crime in question Is one to the
existence Of which we j largely owe the;
existence of that spirit Of u 2 Wlessnes
which takes form In lyn ching. It iss u
crime SO revolving that the criminal Is not
entitled to one particle OF mpathy from
any human being. I lis tai thai the
punishment for It. should be not only as
certain.abut as swi It as possiiole. The Jury
Sin this case did their uty by recolnlne end
Ing the inflictlon of the a tn penalty.
ut IS to be regretted that we did not
have special provision for more re summary 10.
dealing with this type OF cases. The 81,
more we do / wha Il n in us Il lies to secure
certain and swift justice In ling with
these cases the more ef Effectively do we &c
work against the growth OF that lync CHI
ling spirit (which Is 30 full Of evil omen A
for this people, beca use Il seeks to avenge
one infamous crime by he commls sion OF
another OF equal infamy: q;
| S"The applicationfis denied and the sem
tence will be carried into e fleet. aSss
(Signe d)3s,'rHEODORE ROOSEVELT"