The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1908-02-03
(By c. G. wright.)

If Justice is not blind she certainly
is losing her eyesight very fast. Some
statistican recently called attention
to the fact that is was safer to com
nit murder than to work on the rail
road and gave figures to prove his
assertion. The way murderers are
turned loose these days is enough to
convince anyone that it is far safer
to murder than to work at any haz-
ardous occupation, provided the sullty
party has money or friends.
BY the plentiful use of money 1T
is easy to hatch up any kind Of evil
dence the defense desires. If all 9th
err means fail, the counsel for the
murderer sets up the plea of insanity.
Noted alienists are called in to testify
that the acused was crazy and formu-
late all sorts of liypotheses to prove
it. According to she alienists every
body is crazy, only the mar who com
mits murder is more 50 than most 9th
ers.
The insanity plea is to prove that the
guilty one was cra.v at the time of
the deed. have him committed to the
asylum, and then after the excitement
has died down, proceed . prove that
he is not crazy. Aay Juror who is
Influenced by such a plea is a numb
skull, or is h~yptonize6 by the counsel.
The criminal LAWYER and the alien
ist are a menace TO society. because
they both devote their lives to cheat
ing Justice for the lone they get
out of it. Getting Gown to the fine
- A. 1xxu - x.nIyA- +I,, H.,
life work is no better than the men
he defends The one commits crime
and the other helps hira TO get out CT
it.
Many governors and boards Of PAR
don are running neck and meek with
the criminal LAWYER ADD a~lirnist in
seeking immunity Tor the coumtry's
criminals. IF a man in the peniten-
tiary has friends of wealth or even
political influence, it is a sure thing
they can secure mis- pardon.
In this connection it is interesting
to note the record of Colorado's cav
ernor, who is also a Methodist preach
er, and who, on account of his calling,
would naturally be expected 10 make
no compromise with crime. But he
has released more criminals-and ONE
of the worst ones-in the same length
of time of any governor the state has
er had. All that is necessary to get
him to pardon a man is to get the
district judge who tried the case, the
district attorney, some of the jurymen
and a few prominent Republicans to
sign a petition. We have in view one
particularly heinous crime, and it was
well known by the entire populace
where the case was tried that the
judge would sign anything, and. of
course, pressure was brought to bear
on the jurors to get them to change
their views But these things win
help the governor to roll up a majority
when the next election comes around.
Had not Governor Sparks fallen out
with the Western Federation the
chances are that he would have par
doned the murderers of Frank Silva.
Such action was looked for at one
time by people all over the state.
The cases that inspired this arti-
Gle are the Thaw and the Patsy Dwy-
er cases. The Thaw casa has already
used up too much newspaper space.
Let that pass. But the lberating of
Patsy Dwyer of Elko makes every
man who has n sense of Justice,
who has any regard for law, who re-
lies on the assurance of the country to
protect his life and the lives of his
friends-every such man cannot help