The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-01-06

in order to permit the legislature to
extend such mercy if it chooses, that
mo person sentenced to suffer the
punishment of death shall be executed
previous to the first day of January
after the close of the session of the
general assembly following such SEN
tence."
The execution of a death sentence
is thereby usually postponed from one
to two years, and an appeal to the
legislature for communication is practi-
cally always made. The attorneys
and friends of the convicted man are
not considered to have exhausted his
defense until such an appeal is made
and strenuously pressed. The result
is that the case of every person con
victed of murder in the first degree
must be threshed over in the legisla-
ture, and the evidence and proceed
ings are supposed to be reviewed and
reconsidered by large body, neither
trained nor intended for such work
IT the purpose of such review is to
see whether any mistake or error has
been made in the trial, that is purely
a judicial question and should apper-
tain finally to the supreme court. If
it be a question of mercy, it is a
principle common to all American con
situations that such a question Is ex
ecutive and should appertain to the
governor or pardoning board
There are special and justifiable
reasons why the power to remit or
mitigate punishment in case of trea
son or Impeachment might be taken
from the governor, as such cases of
ten involve executive officers or else
affect the general public safety: but
neither of those considerations apply
to the case of murder The cOnsd
sration Of individual murder cases by
the legislature is an assumption OF
either judicial or executive powers, or
both, and contrary to the spirit of
Section of Chapter of the Con
stitution, which provides that the
legislative. executive and judiciary
departments shall be separate and dis
tinct, so that neither exercise the
powers properly belonging to the
other"
1t is a fundamental principle of ON
institutions that legislative bodies
shall not determine individual cases
of crime Section 10 of Article OF
the Constitution of the United States
! forbids any state to pass any bill OF
attainder," that is "a legislative act
which nficts punishment without a
! judicial trial Cummings VS. Mis-
souri,, 4 Wall 277) And Section 20
OF our constitution now provides that
no person ought in any case, or at any
I time. to be declared guilty of trea
son or felony by the legislature The
for murder and there is no justifica
! ton in principle for it to "untry' him
The present practice under which
| all convictions of murder in the first
| degree are reviewed, and practically
must be reviewed, by the legislature
| is subversive of a very fundamental
principle of criminal law, that pun
| ishments in order to be deterrent
| should be quick and sure. 1t occupies
I the time of the legislature with the
| consideration of questions upon which
it is poorly fitted to pass. 1t arouses
| morbid sympathy for condemned
murderers, unsettles the faith of the
| people in the results OF murder trlals
! and tends to make a spectacle of the
/ administration of justice. If the peo-
| re OF the state desire to abolish
| capital punishment the legislature
should do so by general law and not
by special legislation in substantially
every individual case.
If the power to commute, remit OF
mitigate sentences In cases OF felony
is taken from the legislature as pro
posed, then the elimination of the
words and murder" from Section II
becomes necessary, as to cover al
contingencies the power TO grant
mercy should be left somewhere.
PROPOSAL SIX
! That there be added to the Consti
tuition new Amendment to be known
as Article t2sl, as follows: