Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-07-16
#iseellaueoas gsadins.
THE DREADED THIRD DEGREE.

THE DREADED THIRD DEGREE.
| Unlawful Means to Make Criminals
Confess.
Why do 30 many criminal suspects
confess? Why did the sneaking, Sc
cretive, degenerate Chinese fantan
player Chong Sing recently confess to
being an accessory to the shocking
murder Of Elsie Sigel, the pretty young
New York mission worker?
The answer to these questions,
prompted by the Staying Of the grand
daughter of General Franz Sigel and
the flight of the Chinese betrayer of
white women, Leon Ling, alias William
L. Leon, suggests other queries:
Do the police authorities prove that
they should be allowed to break the
law in putting prisoners through the
third degree?"
Does the third degree" or sweat
ing process of extracting confessions,
produce evidence of a trustworthy ma
ture?
Should legislatures exact severe PEN
alties against the practice of leading
(forcing) prisoners to confess before
trial?
More confessions by criminal sus-
poets are obtained by the use OF the
third degree system Of examination by
police officials than by any other
means. This system, originally known
as sweating" is supposed to consist
of subjecting prisoners to continuous
questioning as to the crime with which
they are believed to be connected. The
answers are compared by the detec-
tives or other police officials, and after,
say, hours Of rigid cross questioning,
during which the accused becomes ex-
hausted mentally and physically, the
vital questions first asked are repeated
in a changed form. The answers to
the new queries are compared minute
| ly with the answers to the questions
in their original form. When contra
dictions or even slightest discrepancies
are discovered the bony fingers OF the
law begin to tighten their fatal clutch.
The contradictions give the relentless
examiners hold on the prisoner. He
tries to explain and often entangles
himself more seriously. Wearied and
forlorn, quaking with fear, he will In
many cases break down utterly, plead
for mercy and divulge the sordid de-
tails of brutal felony which he has
witnessed or committed.
AS 1 before stated. that Is what the
third degree is supposed to be, assisted
by the exhibit at an opportune moment
of a knife or pistol used in the crime
or a bloody garment Tin a murder
case) or photograph Of the slain per-
son. These exhibits are well calcu-
lated to break the nerve Of the ac-
cused, to make him come through
that is, tell the whole story II he knows
1t to tell.
But it is the fact that prisoners-in-
nocent persons-have been forced to
confess to crimes that they never COM
mitted and have been forced to de-
scribe in detail the execution of crimes
that they never saw committed which
has raised national protest against
the use of the third degree. While the
process as already described may be
harsh when applied even to person Of
strong mind, yet in a large number Of
cases the results obtained would seem
to justify the police were it not for
the unconstitutionality Of the proce-
dure. Unfortunately for accused
persons, however, there Is no one so
Jealous in the cause Of civic purity as
an unbribed police officer. When you
do not divide the swag or have no
swag to divide, being innocent, you
must expect to get scanty considera-
ton. For this and other reasons (anx-
iety Of police to convict, etc. abuses
have crept into the application Of the
third degree, a system which In its
inception was comparatively simple.
In the case of Chong Sing, the Sigel
accomplice, the police were at first at
loss as to how to proceed because OF
the we'll known secretiveness Of the
Chinese. Hour after hour he was ques-
toned, and his reply was smirking
smile, II no can say what I don't
know" But when a thick set red
faced sleuth pounded the table and
shouted, You killed Elsie Sigel, d-n
you. because We got Leon Ling, and he
says you killed her, and the tongs say
they'll shoot you If you ever get out
of jail" the smirking smile disappear
ed. Chong Sing begins to think in his
soon Leon Ling, a fugitive sought in
10000 American cities and towns, be-
comes liar. Pretty soon Chong Sing
tells the wretched story Of Leon Ling
and the missionary girl who was drug
ged, strangled, mutilated with acid and
thrown into trunk. Pretty soon
Chong Sing begins to tell how he him
self, after witnessing the crime through
a keyhole ESQ he claims), aids in
strapping the trunk, aids In the flight
Of Leon Ling.
There we have one form Of abuse Of
police power-causing the accused to
give evidence against himself. I'VE
have to do these things in order to
convict and so further the ends Of JUS
tice," say the police Of score Of cities.
A young lad was arrested in Cam
den, N. j., charged with the murder
Of young girl. He was kept awake
for sixty hours and piled continually
with questions about the crime. When
questioners became tired, fresh assist