The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1906-06-16
COMPUTATION BUSINESS BEING VERY
MUCH OVERNORKED.

| Gov. Vardaman has been petit
toned to grant a communication of
the death sentence of John
Wright, negro recently convict
ed in the circuit court of Yazoo
county for the murder of his wife.
| The movement tosave the negro
from the gallows is headed by
Sheriff Stubblefeld, chief law
officer of the county, who doesn't
want to perform the diagreeable
task of hanging the negro because
Wright happens to be one of his
family servants.
The petition should not be
granted. The News believes that
the governor will show his back
bone in this matter, as be did in
the Regan case, and refuse to ex-
tend clemency.
The communication business in
Mississippi is being overworked.
1t has come to the point that
no criminal, however vile or atroc,
ious may have been his ofense,
goes to the gallows without de-
termined effort to secure commu-
tation in his behalf being made.
Petitions to save the necks of
the most cold -blooded murderers
and deliberate assassins reach the
governors office almost every
week, signed by persons of stand
ing and influence in the commun-
tiles where the executions are fix
ed to occur.
Signatures to petitions of this
sort mean nothing. Anybody will
sign almost any petition. The
News ventures the assertion that
a petition could be placed on foot
in Jackson today demandin the
immediate death of the foremost
citizen of the commonwealth, and
fve-hundred signatures would be
obtained before nightfall from
persons who attach their names
without even asking questions
concerning the nature of the doc
ument.
But this is not the main point.
The criminals of Mississippi must
be taught that murder means
death. The alarming increase of
crime in the commonwealth rend-
ers it imperative that. capital
punishment be rigidly enforced.
Forty murders in ten days is the
record recently established, and it
is enough to make the public
throw up it's hands IN horror at
the awful carnival of crime that
prevails within our borders.
What does the average negro
care about a life sentence in the
penltentury? 1t doesn't disturb
him in the least. Have you ever
sat in a court room an witnessed
the presiding judge award a life
sentence to a negro criminal?
Did you see him finch, or betray
the slightest sign of nervousness
or emotion? Not a bit of it.
He took it as calmly as if he had
been sentenced to spend an eve
ming at an ice cream festival or a
watermelon party, with a crap
shooting seance on the side.
| The time has come for radical
reform in our criminal courts. and
in the treatment of criminals aft
er they have been sentenced for
capital offenses. When a jury of
twelve men pass on the guilt or
innocence of murderer and de-
clare he should be hanged, and
the supreme court gives calm and
careful review of this finding,
and affirms the sentence, then he
should be hanged, and the COVER
nor should not interfere with the
mandates of the judiciary. The
courts themselves are too back
ward about fixing the death SEN
tence, and juries too frequently
recommend criminals to the mercy
of the court. Statistics compiled
from the penitentiary record show
that nearly one-third of the in
mates have shed human blood.
Scores of cases could be cited
where convicts have been given
life sentences who richly deserved
| death.
Naturally, Sheriff StubbIefeld
dislikes the job of hanging John
Wright because the condemned
man happens to be one of his fam
lily servants. But this is maw-
kish sentiment when submitted to
the test of analysis. Merely be-
cause he has been a servant of
the sheriff does not render him
any the less criminal. 1t is not
a palliation of crime If Sheriff
Stubblefield finds the job disagree
able, he should resign and allow
some one else to perform the dis
agreeable task. It i'll becomes
him to seek defeat of the ends
of justice when he is sworn to up
| hold the law.
More k-breakings is what
Mississippi needs, and the time to
commence them is right now.
jackson Evening News.
Fyl.-