The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-05-10

/
Yadkin River. and the list anniver-
| sary of the departure of Daniel Boone
| from North Carolina for Kentucky"
That was enough. At one time we
| lived in Kentucky, and In behalf of
| our former fellow-citizens of that
state we thank the North carolinians
for the honor they have paid one of
our greatest men. If anybody else
ever passed through North Carolina
and stayed overnight it is not too
much to hope that some time in the
dim and misty future there will be
some patriotic body or other that will
celebrate the incident.
---z--=-------==--------
FREED II, THE RICHEST COURT.
The Supreme Court has been grind
ing out justice for a hundred years
and more, but it generally remains in
the background of public life. Now
and then, by an epoch-making decision,
t such as Marburg VS.. Madison, or Scott
/ VS.. sanborn, or the Slaughter House
4 cases. the court would come before the
4 public in striking manner but for
the greater part of the time it has
been working away in the crypt Of
I Capitol, with no one to know what 1T
was doing or what its decisions meant.
4 OF late. nowever-thanks either to
the newspapers or to the Judges them
selves.-the proceedings of the SUI
. preme Court are getting much more
space in the newspapers. and its rul-
ings are paraded at length with the
), happenings of the political world. The
, Courts decisions are doubtless no
more important and no more original
than in times past. but at any event,
the Court has awakened to the fact that
the reading public wishes to know
what it is doing and 1t generally
/ gives d new sensation with each pass
! ing week.
The latest of these is one of the
most interesting Some time ago, it
appears. the Supreme Court was called
! on to reahirm a sentence imposed on
Paul Weems an officer in the light
| house service in the Philippines.
weems had been found guilty of some
offence and had been given very
heavy punishment by the Colonial
Court. Upon appeal. the Supreme
Court set aside the verdict and ordered
| Weems released, issuing, for the first
| time in its history, decree that lib
Grated a person Immediately without
! ~ 1r,t
In thus upsetting all precedents, Mr..
i Justice Mckenna. speaking for the
\ Court, said thatsWeems must be lib
Grated because his punishment was
contrary to the Constitution. Turning
4 to the eighth amendment, he said that
the Constitution specifically declared
that mo cruel or unusual punishment
should he inflicted. While this. he
said was originally intended simply tc
: prevent torture or cruelty in the exc
cution Of a sentence. ii nevertheless
: protected a man against a sentence
which, By its length or severity, was
. cruel or unusual. In such a case, he
declared. it became the duty of the
. 1
: American justice, to right the wrong
and free the man from all punishment
where a trial court had punished him
too heavily.
This decision viii doubtless have a
very important effect on criminal pro-
cedure in territory strictly under the
control of Federal courts. If the pun
ishment of Weems was unconstitution-
al because of its severity, the punish
ment of any other man may, upon like
+ grounds, be unconstitutional. If the
supreme Court have the right to liber-
d ate this man on constitutional
grounds, it has tile right to liherate
a any other man for any offence under
e the Constitution and punishable by tbs
1 Federal Court. In this way the APP
t pellate Jurisdiction Of the Supreme
L Court in criminal cases may be great
t ~ extended and the powers Of thai
/, court increased accordingly.
s This decision will not. OF course, dl.
t rectly affect all state courts, but. /,
e viii probably affctt tnosc which have
\ clauses in their Constitutions prohib-
Q ting cruel and unusual punishment
: Tie wording OF the Virginia bin 81
rights, for example. Section nine, is al.
! most identical with that Of the FEEDER,
: N Constitution, and by such a process
OF reasoning as that outlinet
, ~ the supreme Court IN thl.
case, would authorize our own su,
! premc' Court to set aside crimina
! sentence as unreasonaplo and 10 lib,
i crate a prisoner
o II is even doubtful that the ruling d