The morning journal-courier., 1908-07-07
LEGALIZED MURDER
What @ Witness to Washelesky Hanging Says of States
 Action.

To the Editor of the Journal-Courler:
 Tuesday, July 1, 1908. man con
 victed on eireumstantial evidence paid l with his life for the deed the state said he had committed. This satisfied
 the majesty of the law; society was
 protected and the execution was the most successful ever witnessed at the | prison, although the victim at the last ! moment almost collapsed.
 A priest had spent most of the day ! with the condemned man and wt3
 with him at the last. He told him the best truths, which are the most | simple" He heard his confession and | gave him such consolation as only 0 priest can give to those dying and just as the black cap was about to ! be drawn over the condemned mans face the cross was pressed to his lips and then as the cap enclosed his head was heard his last words, Me no kill l Peter" :.
 Was he guilty? What an awful
 thought Will man knowing that neither the truth nor lie can save
 him; that in few seconds he will be
 in eternity In the presence of that
 Maker whom he has put his hope In
 for forgiveness, go into the presence
 of that Maker with horrible lie upon
 his lips? There may be some so hard
 ened as will do so. But I can't be- leve it. Would 1t not be more in keeping with their calling for those
 clergymen who cry out in the press
 not to abolish capital punishment to
 remember that it's a thousand times
 better that ninety-nine guilty ones
 should escape than one innocent one
 should suffer?
 Why ls 1t that the majority of those
 who witness executions of this kind
 are opposed to the death penalty?
 The answer to that question is the
 scene enacted at Wethersaeld prison
 July 1, at 12.O5 in the morning.
 The masses are indifferent to the
 death penalty; many are undecided. But witness one and we decide at once
 in favor or against it, The shock is an awful one. The picture of that scene is never effaced from the mind, You are the witness of the most dis graceful death a man can meet. As I looked at that immense beam that ran nearly across the death chamber that night and saw the rope that swayed just the slightest from the wind that came In through the windows l could not help but re- call the words of Victor Hugo who in speaking of the scaffold said:
 When. we come across one (the
 scaffold) the shock Is violent, and we must decide either for or against. He who sees 1t, shudders with the most I mysterious of shudders. All social questions raise notes of Interrogation around it. The scaffold is a vision; it's not a piece of carpenters work | 1t is not Q machine. it is not llfeless mechanism made of wood, steel and
 hopes. It seems to be living being II possessing a gloomy power of initia-
 tive; we might say the woodwork H lives, that the machine hears that tho
 mechanism understands, that tn, II wood and the rope have a will of theil I own. It seems to take a persona II part in what 1t does IL is the ac | compllce of the executioner; it de yours; it eats flesh and drinks blood l It is q monster manufactured by thu U judge and carpenter--a spectre tha seems to live q sort of horrible If, M made up of all the death 1t has in III hcted'
 HI l have seen men on the scaffolt HI with the moose around their neck HI and who had been convicted upon cir I'M cumstantial evidence who told thos II present that they had made thei IN peace with this world and hoped fo HI forgiveness in the world to come am I'M never so much as intimated they wer HI innocent of the crime. Whateve HI might be said of them they did no m die with an awful lie upon their lips MI l have seen men go 10 their dis HI graceful death who would not 'sa OII whether they were guilty or not an HI bad as they had been they did nc |l die telling a lie. But Tuesday Jul HI 1, l witnessed the extinguishing of ll human life of one whose sobs coul ljl be heard all oyer that death chambr
 and saw him kiss the cruciax as h - last act on earth and then heard thos
 words that chilled the very blood (
 those that heard them: Me no Ri Peter"
 That this man knew who did tf awful deed l have no doubt but SCI
 iously doubt if he did it. If n,
 guilty, what an awful act has bee committed in the name of the lay Tt is wrong to become so absorbe N in the divine law as to lose sight X the human law. Death belongs V God alone. By what right do me in meddle with that unknown thing" pd D. st New Haven, July 6.