Arizona republican., 1913-02-09
IN PART
 ID OR. HUGHES
Issue Taken With Parts of Late Address Before the County Medical Society on Subject of Capital Punishment
Phoenix, Arizona, Feb 2nd. 1913, Editor The Republican:

Dr. II. A. Hughes in Sundays issue
 and would appreciate space for the
 purpose of calling attention to some serious misapprehensions and illogi-
 cal conclusions arrived at in what
 is, otherwise d rather well reasoned
 and well stated production.
 First, l question the correctness of
 basng our civilization on the laws
 and precepts of a barbarous age
 and people, such as created the laws
 of the old Hebrew scriptures. A
 people who having advanced as the
 civilized nations of the earth have
 advanced, must necessarily advance
 along all lines to attain the emi-
 hence they have reached. Most of
 his quotations are from the old Test
 lament which. according to the state
 ment of the founder of the Christian
 religion. have mostly been done away
 with by another testament. Few
 quotations from the New Testament
 mphold the taking of life of man
 by man. for any reason. The Jews
 believed in "an eye for an eye. a
 tooth for a tooth" Not only does
 Christianity repudiate this cruel low
 
 Of justice in understanding that no
 human will. deliberately kill fellow
 being when he or she Is in the pos
 session of their normal reason, log
 ically backs up this repudiation.
 The fact that Christ states that
 the wages Of sin is death does not
 mean that man shall pay those wages.
 Hence, the reference is not necessari-
 ly to the death of the body. Then.
 also Dr. Hughes must consider that
 there are many of the greatest
 thinkers and most advanced scholars
 that do not recognize the bible, either
 old or new as composed entirely of
 proven facts. This would. to the
 greatest extent, tear down the main
 foundations of his argument as bas-
 ed mainly on ideas derived from
 these scriptures.
 l am one of those who claim that
 not only the increase of crime car
 not be proven. but that crime has
 greatly, Very greatly decreased dur
 ing the ages that have seen the de-
 crease of the number of crimes pun
 ishable by death from many hun dredS to q very, very few Take,
 for instance. England During the
 tWelvth and up to the fifteenth cen turies. there were hundreds of crimes that were punished by death. Can 1t be shown that we have as many such small crimes now. nOfhwith- standing the great increase in popu- lation. that we had in those dark ages a time when every one be- lieve,i in the teachings of both the old and new testaments?
 When the speaker made the state ment that I believe that every one who has given the matter worthy thought will determine at once that it is the manner in which our laws are executed that io responsible for the increase in crime" or rather | the lack of eXecution,' he removes another large plank from the plat form Of his argument That the me thod of doing a thing wrongly is Justification for doing il all will not | bear the test of logic. The main cause of the miscarriage Cf such | laws is an innate feeling in the | breast of every man that his fellow. | even though greatly erring, should not be killed by himself, hence every possible means are used to l thwart this punishment which, to him, is simply another murder. l frankly admit his statement that the process of trying men is ridiculously l in the wrong Every one who has had the slightest observation of our manner of prosecuting and defending men tried for murder well knows that it is simply battle between the state and the defense. evidence many. many times manufactured by both sides-not in their zeal to ar rive at a just understanding and decision, but to win a case, to prove a mental superiority over his oppon l ent The cause of the accused is often entirely lost sight of.
 This, together with our senseless mediaeval system of endeavoring to secure illiterate. ignorant. uninformed men to occupy such great position as that of intelligent judge of whether a fellow being is entitled to life or must die, is sufficient to cause any just man to intensely de sire to wipe off our statute books every chance for such awful chances of murdering a fellow man. It is bad enough to kill a man when known to be guilty. How much more horrible is it to kill an absolutely | innocent one!.. And Dr. Hughes can not possibly get around the fact, too well established to be disputed, that hundreds and thousands of men, even when given what we term a fair trial, are proven guilty. and are af- | terward found to be innocent | have in mind as I write, several in stances of this kind. If he were alive | and working for the support of | helpless family, some reparation | might be made. Dead, there can be none-and great injustice. not only | to the murdered man and his fami ! ly, but to the conscience of the hu man race, has been done.
 The arguments in favor of vigil | lanteS strikes me as Verging very | closely upon mob rule, than which | there is no deadlier nor more das 1 tardly instinct in the human race | Thing of a helpless man in the powerful hands of hundreds of men I 2