The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-05-21
DEATH PENALTY
FAILS IN PURPOSE
Does not Tend to Reduce Crime More
Men put to Death In America Than in
All Other Nations in World Combined.
And More Crime.
A BARBARIC PRACTICE

New York's method of infilcting
the death penalty. as demonstrated
in the electrocution of the four
Rosenthal gunmen at Sing Sing, has
been declared to be entirely pain
less and the law requires it to be
conducted privately. A warden's
nod at dawn through the bars of a
clean. sanitary cell intimates to its
gray occupant that his presence is
expected in a small chamber few
steps away. And there the con.
demned man is dispatched.
Nevertheless, in spite of all that
may be said in favor of this method
of intlicting the death penalty. some
instructive comparisons may be made
between practices IN the United
States and in other nations.
In the United States every year
more men are put to death than in
all the other Christian nations in the
world combined. From Jan. l tc
Nov. 1, 1912, the executions nun
bered 12S. England ranked second
with 81; France third, with 12, Aus
tria put two citizens to death.
Our criminal codes contain II
capital crimes, more than twice as
many as those of any other Christian
nation in the world. Men may be
put to death here for these crimes:
Robbery (two states.)
Burglary (four states.)
Arson (nine states.)
Second degree murder (three
states.)
Rape (15 states.
First degree murder (United
States and 46 states.)
Treason Omitted States.)
Piracy Omitted States
Rescue of a convict going to exc
cution Omitted States.)
Burning a vessel of war Omitted
States.)
Corruptly destroying private
vessel Omitted States.)
England abolished the death pen
atty for robbery, arson, burglary,
and rape as far back as 1886. 1t
has now only four capital crimes.
France and Austria, with each five,
are the only Christian nations in
Europe exceeding it.
Death by Decapitation
Thirty of the worlds SO death
penalty nations use decapitation, a
method of death which is so merci-
fully quick that the eye is unable to
follow it, That it works absolutely
without pain was attested by an ex-
pertinent conducted in Algiers in
1888 by M. Bonnafont. The heads
of two Arab victims were caught as
they fell, the necks swiftly dipped
into pulverized gypsum to stanch
the blood, and after scarifcations
had been quickly made with lancet
upon the cheeks the names OF the
two Arabs were shouted into their
ears with trumpet, but the count
enance relapsed into fixed immo-
bility, coldly complexionless and
impassive in death"
Thirty-five of our As death pen
atty states, however, employ the
gallows. which, it has been proved. :.
prolongs the victims death agonies
to an average of Ills minutes. The
figures is from the records of DR..
Alonzo Calkins who in 1878 made
public these figures, based on is
hangings:
Deaths by strangulation, 1873 per
cent.
Severe contortions, %; moderate,
IA; feeble, 1S; chest. heavings, 8.
Broken neck: evident, 6; partial,
4; doubtful. 7.
Average fall. 3-4 feet.
Cord broke at eight hangings.
Even the Turkish bowstring and
the Spanish garrote, DR.. Calkins
urged, are more humane than the
gallows. In the history of the gal
lows are scores of cases in which it's
victims, cut down after'six or seven
minutes, have been restored to life.
One of the most famous of these is
the case of Margaret Dickson who
in 1870 was cut down from the
Edinburg gibbet and was jolted back
to life when a rough cart was used
to carry her coffin to Musselburg;
she lived for 80 years afterward
under the nickname of Half-hanged
Maggie. The heart of John Brown,
hanged at Harper's Ferry in 1859.