The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-02-23
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2s, 1907.
A man may stand safer on the most
gddy preciplce than he can descend
from It. Such are the laws to which
ambition subjects Its votarIes.-scott,
Crime and Punishment.

The Lyp chburg News dissents from
95our view that condemned criminals
should be taken to the penitentiary to
be executed.
ITO our mind,' says the News, "the
Vdea is not consistent with the true
II philosophy of legal penalty. The purpose
of capital punishment is to afford such
character of example to the criminally
disposed as will carry crime-deterrent
effect. Or. to put It differently. the law
does not seek to visit revenge upon the
murderer as an individual. but through
his just punishment it essays to furnish
the sort of object lesson that will tend
10 the general safety and security OF
society. This purpose. we contend, Is
seriously impaired when the scene Of
punishment Is far removed from the
situs Of crime. As that distance in
creases the criminal element in a COM
lnunity where capital offense has been
committed, are rendered the less fearful
and are the less impressed by the
horrors of the scaffold-death to which
one of their class has been committed,
and hence what was intended, or should
be intended, as an actual horror-creatlng
sss.rning passes away more as tale
I Ea.t IS told than thing that Is done.
she News be right, we should abolish
the penitentiary and punish all sorts
and conditions Of criminals at home. So
Ear from agreeing with the News how
eyer, we are firm in the belief that
+ executions i'll the penitentiary would
Il Nave. a restraining influence far moro
n sffectiye than executions near the situs
u the crime.
Henry NJ. Boies in his work on "The
4 Science OF Penologv," says that the
\ death penalty will be more deterrent TO
4 " The criminal class than any other. "f
Z the life of tho murderer Is extinguished
II quietly and without parade or public
notice by the newspapers, just as one
brushes the head Of snake or shoots
/ q mad dog to rid society of danger"
s All the conditions noted by Mr.. Boies
Y would be best met by executing the
q criminal in the penitentiary.
But we have something in mind which
Mr.. Bocs never dreamed Of. Tho South
Z has to deal with tho negro criminal
81 class and the negro is superstitous
~ Nothing affects him like mystery That
HI is why tho Kuklux was such terro,
B 70 him. Under the present system
"A when a negro is ,copd~hned to death he
Nj becomes a star boardcr at the Jail. He
III is treated with moro consideration thar
other prisoners. The preacher comes t
see him daily, and he soon prepares him
" self for the hereafter. On the day O.
execution he has a new suit of clothes
5 he marches at tho head OF the process
- sion, he makes a speech to an appre
"a ciatiye audience, and in his own esti
nation he dies a hero, If not martyr
and goes to glory. All the negroes heal
about it, and some of them doubles.
think it very pleasant way Of making
ones exit. We doubt If such an execu
ton ever deferred any negro from com
mitting crime.
The case would be quite different &
negroes condemned to die We're re
moved at once to tho penltentiary--ant
81 forever LOST Al that their acQuaint
Il snces would know would be that the,
were in some mysterious way deprived
OF life, and their imagination and super
sution would supply the details.
We have given this subject matur
elaboration, and the opinion long en-
tertained has become a conviction tina
no form OF punishment would NOR
NJ effectually deter capital crime than tn
ii mysterious execution of all condemne
criminals within the silent walls OF tn
penltentiary.