Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1905-06-29
may have to 60 to jail for II?

over tne american people! Because they
have grown 80 very kind ana soft hearted
In these iays--honcstiy kinder and softer
hearted than any people ever we're before,
so that 1t is often forbidden for the driver
of horse to carry a whip-does IT follow
that all idea Of retrbution has departed
| from mems minds?
Fatal error, indeed, II 1t has! This kind
of soft -heartedness to evldoers is tho
to ones own. IL
builds up a heritage of scandal and dis
grace for our children. 1t replaces a
wholesome respect for law and for right
and duty with All easy indulgence that
makes the whole American people par
ticeps criminis in a continual carnival OF
graft. public and private. governmental
and commercial. It abolishes conscience
in public and business affairs. 1t leaves
with no restraint at all the man or
woman who cannot be restrained except
by fear.
| We are a soft hearted generation, III.
deed. but we are not in this respect of
guilt and shame and accountability, es-
scntially different from the generations
that have gone before. Somehow or other
Judgment still treads upon the heels of
sin; and II the penalty does not fall upon
the shoulders Of those to whom it belongs.
it will descend. in the form Of vital weak
ness and national death. upon us all as
accompliccs before the fact--upon US, and
our children.
The Springfield Republican, nscribes tho
difficulty experienced in the effort to adj
minister justice in the case of Mrs. Rog-
crs to the fact that she is woman. al
though sngularly enough it goes on to
show that Vermont liz trying to make an
exception in her case, whereas it has no!
executed murde rer for Il number OF
years. The Republican says:
The experience which Vermont is hay
ing in the effort to hang woman ought
TO number the days Of capital punishment
in that State. While no doubt Mrs. Rog-
ers is now alive by virtue only of the in.
genuity of her attorneys and the existenc.
of the usual supply of legal technicalities
on which to hang endless interfcrcnceX
with the execution Of the Judgment it has
more tho less been evident that the people
of the State as a whole have had no stom
ach for tho business in hand and Will"
Governor Bell is to be commended for his
stand in favor of executing the laws, most
everybody probably feels relief that this
same loyalty to law has compelled him
to grant another rcpricve.
The fact Of the matter is that Vermont
had sickened of capital punishment before
the Rogers case ever arose. 1t has been
letting its murderers escape the gallows
for years There hadn't been public sem
timcnt In tn. state strong enough to bring
about the hanging Of moro than one muir
dsrer in two decades or over. and to sup
pose that it exists now in strength enough
above all to single out woman and
make her an exception to what had be-
come rule in the case OF mon n,urderers,
is probably to go beyond tho truth Such
a superstition is not reasonable. and has
nothing to support it outside of reason
except the refusal Of lot of isolated
men legislators at Montpelier interfered
in this particular case.
1t would seem to be time. therefore. TO
make further impossible these unsightly
exhibitions growing out Of the attempt to
keep up law which has no suficient
basis in public sentiment There Ia no Ger
tainty that the infection of the death
penalty ever had deterrent effect and
there is abundant certainty that 1t Is re-
voting and calculated rather to cheaper
than enhance the value ~ human life.
This present sickening experience should
be conclusive in bringing about that aboli-
iton Of the penalty toward which tho
State has so clearly been drifting these
many years.
As a simple matter Of fact public senti-
ment has had comparatively little to do
with the committing OF the death sentence
in Vermont. AS rule but one side of
the case is heard by the legislators when
they take vote on the question whether
a condemned persons sentence shall be
changed to life Imprisonment. The law
yers for the accused are present in per-
son. thoroughly prepared to show that
there is great uncertainty about the guils
OF their client anyway and in short the
case is presented in one-sided way by
| them just as they would present it to
a jury in summing up. The State is not
represented and II any legislator presents
the case at all, it is done because he is
impressed by the fact a murderer should
not be allowed to escape paying the pen
atty imposed by law. He knows no more
about the facts in the case than any other
uninfornncd member OF the Legislature.
Is it any wonder under these circum-
stances that legislators vote to substitute
life Imprisonment for capital punishment,
particularly when 1t is SO dificult to Sc
cure evidence that will convict a person
OF murder or even mansaughter before a
jury?
with the interference OF the federal court
with the courts of Vermont in the case
Of Mary Rogers. AS we have already said,
the quibbling over her case had reached
II point where even opponents of capital
punishment were calling for her execu-
ton. convinced as they were of her guilt.
The carrying of her case to the Supreme
Court of the United States has had moro
to do with making the punishment of any
person convicted of murder uncertain
than public sentiment against capital
punishment or against the hanging of a
woman has had to do with the postponing
OF her deserved punishment. and IL she
escapes on a tcchnicality. which in tho