The Mena weekly star., 1913-09-18
MOOSE SAYS PRESS
 NUzzLE ACT VALID
Attorney General Renders Opinion on Law Prohibiting Papers From Printing Details of ElectrOcutiOns
 -COnstitutiOnality Questioned.

Printing Details of ElectrOcutlOnS
 -COnStitutiOnality Questioned.
 Little Rock, Sept. 16-No newspa- per in Arkansas is legally permitted to publish the details of the electro cution of criminals, as the act of which Earl Kidder of Little Rock is the author was declared to be con- stitutional and valid by Attorney General Moose, i'll an opinion given out today.
 Judge Moose rendered the opinion at the request of Governor George W. Hays. It is as follows:
 You ask my opinion as to wheth- CT the act providing for electrocu- ton of persons convicted of capital ollenses, passed at the last session of the General Assembly, prohibited the printing and publishing of the details of executions of such per- sons; and, if so, what penalty is prescribed for a violation of the act.
 Section 10 of the act. page 174 of the Acts of 1913, reads as fol- lows:
 No newspaper or person shall print or publish the details of the execution of criminals under the act. Only the fact that the crimi- nal was executed shall be printed or published
 No Penalty Provided.
 There is no penalty provided in the act for its violation, nor is it stated that its violation will consti- tute a criminal Offense. But we have another statute, Section 1447 of Kirbys Digest, which provides for such contingency. I reads as follows:
 Section 2447. Where the per- formance of any act is prohibited, or the performance of any act is required by any statute, and no penalty for the violation of such statute is imposed. either in the same section containing such pro- hibition or requiring such act or duty, or any other secton or statute, the doing of such prohibited act or the neglect of such required act or duty, shall be deemed a misdemea- nor
 This statute, in effect, makes the publication of the details of an electrocution a misdeameanor, and Section PAS of the Digest provides the penalty in such cases. It reads as follows:
 Another Phase.
 Section PAS. Every person who shall be convicted of any misdemea- nor, the punishment of which is not defined in this or some other stat ute, shall be punished by imprison- ment not exceeding one year, or by fine not exceeding S250, or by fine and Imprisonment both
 These sections of the law, read together, make the publication of the details of the execution of criminals, under the 1913 act, a misdemeanor punishable by inn prisonment for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than S25O or both fine and imprison- ment.
 The only serious question that suggests itself is whether the act is unconstitutional, as being in vio- lation of the provision relative to the liberty of the press. The pro- vision is contained in Article 2, Sec tion 6, of the constitution, and reads as follows:
 Liberty of the Press.
 The liberty of the press shall forever remain inviolable. The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the invalua- able rights of man; and all persons may freely write and publish their sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of such right
 Tn terms the act of 1913, taken in it's broad sense, constitutes re- striction on the liberty of the press, but the liberty of the press, which the constitution would preserve in- violable. does not include the right to publish that which would be harmful, or such as would offend public morals or public sensibili- ties. It is like the liberty of the citizen. a liberty regulated by law: so that the liberty of one will not work harm to others. The law, for many years, has endeavored to make legal executions private, on the supposition that the witnessing of such spectacles was demoraliz- ing to the multitudes, who flooded to public executions. The legislature, which passed the electrocution act, evidently deemed it demoralizing to have a mental picture of electro cutions drawn by skillful reporters and scattered broadcast over the country by the newspapers, and has made it unlawful to do so. This is not a violation of the constitutional right of the liberties of the press, as that phrase is read in the con- stitution.
 Tt is my opinion, therefore, that the act does prohibit the publica- ton of executions of criminals, and that it is constitutional and valid"