Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1908-04-10
HANGiNGS NOT YET
ABOLISHED IN STATE
Electrocution Law Does Not Be-
come Effective until June 9th.
PRISONER MAY CHoC
Apparatus to Be Installed in Pen
itentiary to Cost S6,500-Offi-
Gals Are Not Pleased
With Innovation.

Just who will be the first person
To die I'm Virginia's new electric chair
or when the Individual in question
will meet his fate. is problem which
none can answer today. though II
would seem. from q close study OF
the bill changing the method OF cap
ital punishment that IL will be many
months yet before the use OF the
gibbet is altogether discarded i'm the
Old Dominion.
To begin with. nobody appears TO
know for certain when those acts
of the General Assembly which lack
che emergency clause will become ef-
fective. Section SO OF the Constitu-
ton says that all laws. save the gen
eral appropriation bill and those with
the emergency clause. become ef-
fective nintey days after the adjourn
ment OF the session of the General
Assembly"
Does this mean ninety days after
the final adjournment of the extend
ed session. which ended its labors
March 9th? If SO. that would make
the electrocution bill effective June
27th
But even granting that this be the
correct Interpretation OF the law, il
would appear that n man, who com
March Goth. would still be allowed
the familiar but doubtful privilege of
hanging rather than OF dying from
electric shock.
Here is the language OF the bill in
this particular: Nothing i'm this act
shall he 80 construed as to change or
alter the manner of execution OF the
sentence OF death when imposed on
account of crimes committed before
this act goes into effect"
The Right of Election.
/ To state the case differently. a man
frrln CON II hA nffsln
OF June goth and not meet the death
penalty until two or three years later.
if he managed To get his case into
the Supreme Court. The effect of
this would be. for a time at least, TO
have both the gallows and the electric
the Commonwealth.
1t may be- however. that criminal
entitled TO a hanging might he allowed
to substitute clcctrocution for the glib
bet. But the latter medium of dissolu-
ton could not be forced upon him;
he could only get IL through the eX-
ercise OF his right of election
II is a pretty safe guess to say that
the law is mighty apt To be tested.
People under sentence of death catch
at every straw, and then. too. no Off
Ger OF the law would care to make
mistakes i'm such a delicate matter.
In New York the first man to die
In the chair" was the murderer
Kemmler, who took his case to the
Supreme Court. on the ground that
electrocutiOn was "A cruel and unusual
punishment interdicted by the Con
stitution. The appellate tribunal
thought otherwise. Kemmler died in
the chair.
GrcwSomc Formula TO Go.
When this deadly engine OF destruc-
tion is established in the death cham
Der OF the penitentiary, where all con-
victed in this State must die when
once the law becomes fully operative.
II will be necessary for the courts to
change the grewsome phraseology OF
their judgments, which now tell the
criminal that he must be hanged by
the neck until dead, dead, dead. and
may God have mercy on your soul
The bill just passed by the Legisla-
ture-it was approved by the ENecu-
tive March 16th-provides that rela-
tives OF the criminal may claim the
body after the execution.
II likewise contains provisions as to
the manner i'm which condemned felons
must be brought TO the prison and
how they can be removed in case they
are allowed new trials.
Arrangements now are being made
for the purchase OF the necessary APP
paratus. which. il is understood, will
cost $4,000, although the bill carries
an appropriation of only $1,000. Doubt
less n Commonwealth can buy electric
chairs on credit, or IL may be that
the Governor will arrange for the de-
ferred payments
Curbs the Reporters.
The bill forbids newspapers to pub
and restricts them to a mere recital
of the fact that the condemned man
has met his doom. In this connection
il is hardly likely that any reporter
will care to violate the statute. News
papers nowadays say good deal about
what happens just before the prison
er's death and about what happens i'm
mediately afterwards. but they do not
incline towards the physical realism
which is interdicted.
1t is an open secret that the peni-
tontiarv officials do not await the ad-
vent OF the electric chair with any
marked degree OF cheerfulness. They
would all rather see the present sys-
tenn OF executions continue.
The chair" on the days IL operates.
is apt to cast gloom over the whole
Institution, and its effect on the other
prisoners will be most depressing.
Within the last three or four years
the number of law breakers condemn
ed to capital punishment in Virginia
has been startlingly large. Only few
days ago Governor Swanson had before
him the petitions of three men who
though convicted in different parts of
the State. were all sentenced to die
on the same day.
Within the last two years the total
number who have persisted on the gal
lows has probably been as large as
fifty. In days to come the penitentiary
will have all this awful business to
contend with.
Doubtless the change gratifes the
sheriffs and town sergeants. whose fee