Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-06-01
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

question Oh capital punishment anu
the ACCESSIBILITY of retaining in our
statutes the death penalty for Grim
inals convicted of murder in the first
degree. There is, apparently, a grow
ing sentiment in favor of substituting
imprisonment for life for the gallOws.
Certain it is, that there exists hes
itancy on the part of jurors in melting
out the extreme penalty even when
there is full justification for so doing
in the law and the evidence. There
is dread of taking human life even
| by legal process. call it maudln SEN
timentalism. or what you may. Those
who would do away with the death
penalty hold that it is a relic of the
| past and not credit to our higher
civilization, that it does not serve as
deterrent in preventing murders, as
can be proven by the record of crime
in states where the law prevails.
The following editorial in recent
issue of the Butte Inter- Mountain con-
tain some statements that will strike
the reader as pretty near the truth,
whether he is prepared to to believe
that the time is ripe for striking the
death penalty from our statutes or
not:
AS often as there is a lawful hang
ing in Montana, the newspapers of the
state revive discussion of ACCESSIBILITY
of capital punishment as feature of
state policy in the treatment of MUIR
.ierers. Opposition to the mode ap-
pears to be- growing. if one may judge
from the character of this discussion
The same instructive sentiment which
prompted the lawmakers who provd-
ed for the execution to prohibit public
exhibition of the punishment doubt
less prompts the citizen who protests
against the retention of savage prac-
tees in civilized justice.
Here and there an editor remains
who regards such protests as evidence
of maudlin sympathy for brutal Grim
inals. and who rests content with the
assertion that hanging is too good
for the deliberate murderer. The fact
that hanging is too good for criminals
of the class is only one more excellent
reason why they should not be hung
1t is the contention of the advocates
of abandonment of capital punishment
that among liberty-loving people life
Imprisonment is a more severe punish
ment as well as a more efficient one
! for the purpose of the law. There is
no possible justification for lawful
hanging other than the purpose of de.
| terrinS others from crime. 1t is easy
of demonstration that states in which
capital punishment has been abandon.
ed have shown no increase of murders
number of such crimes than those
states which have retained the killing
of men as a means of promoting re-
spect for human life. Time was when
scarcely an Offense enumerated in tn.
criminal code of civilized states today
was not punishable with death under
the laws and practices of England and
he would appear foolish in controversy
who should endeavor to maintain that
crimes have multiplied in that country
as a result of the humanizing of the
laws.
IF capital punishment was effect
| i've in preventing murder there would
be few occasions for use of sentiment
tai arguments. maudlin or otherwise
One of the first and best objections
to ii is that it does not deter the MUIR
derous-minded and that it does very
frequently enable the known murder
er to escape all punishment, by reason
of the natural and general antipathy
the death of fellow mortal. We Of
Montana do not need to go from home
to be convinced of evidence to justify
these conclusions. In Silver Bow coun-
~ since it was created there has been
an average of murders for each year
in excess of all the executions in all
HE years The difficulty of convict
ing a man of murder in the first de-
gree has not been confined to the coun-
tN or to the jury. Higher courts and
governors are in the way of the eX-
IRENE penalty and maudln sympathy
has been more effective. in behalf of
those who have been condemned and
properly condemned. to secure immun-
lty from all punishment than il ever
has been to conform 10 the laws of ra,
tional humanity and long experience.
Whatever brutalizes human nature
tends to cheaper human life. The tall;
about the superior rights of the state
which warrant it in taking life to dis
courage others from the same action
is superficial in a state which derives
all its rights from the people who con
stitute il. 1t carries trace of the
times when kings We're the state ant
affected 10 act by divine right. 1t is