The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-20
PLEA FOR
KOREANS
Local Lawyer BIames
the Community for
Indifference.

! In regard TO the five Koreans who
| are to be hanged for murder on May
| 2, prominent lawyer yesterday ex-
pressed his opinion as follows:
Without condemning the decision of
the Governor or the case as presented
to him, I believe that the community
gave too little attention to the matter
as a whole. In other words the Gov
ernor has been deprived of the advice
and expression of public opinion which
community taken the interest in the
case that would have been taken if
the people condemned We're better
known.
The hanging is to take place within
two weeks and practically the case
goes by default SO far as real public
opinion is concerned. There are no
good grounds for contending that the
act of the men who are condemned
was other than a lynching. Though
Oriental in the way it was done, to wit,
by barbarous torture. but bearing in
mind that punishment by courts is
aimed almost exclusively at prevention,
it is a question whether these men
should be hanged.
Some years ago, a prominent white
merchant of Hamakua, in company
with three or four other white men,
undertook to castigate and intimidate
a Japanese storekeeper whose only
offense was that he had started a rival |
store and was selling goods too cheap |
ly. Following up the castigation, they !
strung the man up to telephone post, |
not long enough as they thought to |
him to death. He was finally |
killed, however, but the ringleader in |
this affair was sentenced to only eight |
years Imprisonment. Though the ele- |
ment of extreme torture was not want /
ing and though the provocation was
less then nil, no one demanded the |
execution of these offenders nor was |
there any occasion for it. The SEN
tence proved sufficient and effectively
put a stop to anything of a similar
nature and the Japanese government, |
as evidence of its satisfaction with the
trial and sentence, decorated the Off
GERS who conducted the prosecution.
Many years ago, a native religious
fanatic with his followers in Kona,
stoned a white sheriff to death and
were punished by few years impris-
onment, and justly so, for the crime |
was a bit of fanaticism and lacked the
elements of selfish murder for private
ends
These Koreans certainly should not
90 unpunished; life Imprisonment,
however, is a great punishment to
anyone. The punishment had far bet
er be too little than too much, be-
ause there is always reaction against
excess and the moral effect upon 9TH |
RS, which is the most vital point to be
sained, is thus lost. If the effect on |
he 5000 Koreans here is that these |
men were hanged because of the in
Inference of the community and the |
ack of influence back of the prisoners,
he value of the prosecution and con-
'iction as a deterrent. is weakened.
The argument that the greater the
Oena1ty the less likely people are to |
commit crime, has been exploded a
thousand times. The fact. that these
Koreans told others of what they had |
one supports the proposition. that. in
certain way, they considered and be-
ieved that they were executing justice | :,
pon the deceased. The cruelty prac- !
ised is apt to blind one in making |
true estimate of the nature of their =.
ffense and the motives back of ii. 1t |
GEMS to me that more time should | .
e given to think the thing over and
he Governor is not the one to refuse |
t, particularly if the question has
argely gone by default, perhaps |
through our own Indifference and in (
ttention to civic duty