Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-11-11
RATIONALE or

erty is the prevention of crime to
the benefit of the whole body poll
tic.
1t is not the states right or duty
to revenge wrongs done persons,
nor does it inflict pain o. injury on
the criminal for punishment's sake.
The criminal is himself a part of
the State, one of the body polite.
To hurt him is to hurt a member
of the commonwealth. Punish
ment of criminals, therefore, is to
be Iikened to the lancing of a boil
or an amputatiOn-pain to a part
or the sacrifice Of d member for the
health of the whole body, physical
or political.
This theory runs through the
whole scheme of English and Amer
lean criminal Jurisprudence. 1t
is, almost universally accepted,
yet often misapplied Or ignored.
Excessive zeal, Indignation and
most of all a failure on the part of
judicial officers toapply great prin-
ciples to small matters, in too
many cases result in infections of
penalties in total subVersiOn of the
whole theory.
In no way is the true rationale
of punishment for crime so much
and so often violated as in excess
sive penalties. Two hundred years
ago larceny was a hanging offence
in Great Britain, yet larccnies
were more frequent then, compar-
atively to population, than now.
Women were hung for stealing
bread for starving children, yet
stealing went on. Modern en-
lightenment has abolished all that
and with it came, or rather there
preceded it, a great truth, simple
but wisc-that is GIT is NOT THE
SEVERITY But THE CERTAINTY OF
PUNISHMENT THAT IS THE GREAT
DETERRENT OF CRIME.'
Moderate penalties, punishment
prOpOrtiOncd to the criminaiity of
the act, but enforced with GER
tainty and rigOr, have been found
to be % effective in diminishing
crime than the lex taliOniS. the
DracOnian Code, or those old Grim
inal laws of England which were
said to hTvc been written in blood.
The administration Of the GRIM
inal law in Mississippi is faulty in
that too little attention is paid to
the true principles of legal punish
ment us above indicated. Too
many crimes so not punished at
all and too heavy penalties are in
tlicted, frequently, on those I'M
fortunate enough to be caught,
tried and convicted. The connec-
ton between being caught and
being heavily punished is too
close, and the connection between
committing an infractiOn Of the
law and being punished at all is
too remote. Men will not inform
on viOlatOrS of the law, officers
will be a little blind, juries will be
lOath to convict where excessive
penalties are likely to be inflicted.
1T is a far cry, seemingly, from
the philosophy of criminal law and
crap shooting by negroes and other
of the smaller infrnctions of the
law, yet much injustice has come
about from a failure to apply the
first to the second. If the penal
ties inflicted fell solely on the ne
grees, or if they were effective in
breaking up the practice, they
might be justified. But in many
cases the loss falls on the white
employer, who has to pay the fine,
and nothing really is accomplished
in the way of putting an end to
the commission of the crime. In
the first place only about one in
five hundred of the guilty is caught.
There is no certainty of punish
ment when so many escape with
none at all. And the exces-
sive punishment of the few that