Arizona republican., 1910-04-27

| territory should intervene to prevent
 the infliction of the death penalty in
 these cases. We have to confess that 1 we have no knowledge of the cases I that would warrant us In expressing
 an opinion on the question. Our cor
 they are unable to present to the governor any reason for clemency
 other than their pity for the con-
 demned men, or their opposition to
 the principle of capital punishment,
 the governor cannot in justice inter- fere with the sentences imposed by the courts-for the governor has taken
 an oath to execute the law, and the law says these men must hang.
 Of the heavy responsibility" which | confronts a governor when he de- clines 10 interfere with a death sen- |; tence He assumes a really heavy ! responsibility when he decides that /. the sentence shall be set aside
 Cases are presented from time to i time, however, in which executive in- reference is entirely justifiable. Pos sibly the cases under consideration furnish such justification. But ap- peals for the governors clemency. in order to be effective, must lay be- fore him such facts relating to the
 crimes as will clearly justify doubt
 whether justice was done to the pris-
 oners in the courts.
 As to the abstract question of the
 death penalty. we have to say to our
 correspondents that we have no fixed
 opinion--it is one of those questions
 which we have never been able to
 decide to our own satisfaction. We are glad the responsibility does not
 rest upon us of saying whether the
 law shall impose the penalty of death for any crime. But very likely if it were left to us to decide. we should abolish the death penalty.
 It is possible there is no question before our civilization that is so baf- fling of proper determination as this question of dealing in a spirit Of civilization with the murderer. When we consider, as suggested by one Of our correspondents. the awful handi- caps of heredity; the fact. now pretty generally admitted, that crime is a manifestation of disease, and that the murderer is a degenerate who in his own being pays the penalty of an i'm proper breeding for which his ances- tors, and not he, were responsible, it is revolting to all those feelings which we attribute to our better in- stincts to have the criminal brought before us and killed in cold blood by the law for his crimes.
 But what is organized society to do for its own protection? The mad dog is diseased. but we say the mad dog must be killed TOT the protection of society. It does not meet the ques- tion to say that we protect society from the murderer when we confine him securely and thus prevent his further outbreaks We are yet in such a state of savagery that the punishment of the murderer in some dreadful form is necessary in order to deter other men from taking the lives of their fellow men. Within the next twelve months the people who will lose their lives at the hands of their fellow men-the men, women and children in the United States of America who will go to their death ! from murder in its various degrees 1 under the laws definition-will reach l an appalling total sufficient to popu- l late the city of Phoenix.
 No other civilized land presents | such a disgraceful record Our homi- l cides are the shame of America. Our | foreign critics say it is because we do not punish the crime of murder. 1 They point to great city after great city in our country in which murders by the score are committed every | year. and in which there is never a ] hanging. They point to the compara- ; tive safety of human life in European countries and insist that it is because | European countries send their mur- derers promptly to the scaffoid France alone in recent years has somewhat approached the awful rec ord of the United States for murders committed. Some twenty years ago in response to what was deemed an ; enlightened and Christian sentime 1t, France abolished the death penalty So enormously did the percentage Nf murders increase in that period that last year France restored the guillo- tine.