The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1915-08-26
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
WRONG IN THEORY
Gov. Dunno So Declared in Addressing
Conference of Governors at Boston
He Doubts Whether II
Deters Crime.

Boston, Aug. 26.--Gov. Edward +
Dunno of Illinois addressed the confer
ence of governors to-day in favor of thu
abolition of capital punishment, which he
pronounced wrong in theory and in act
He said the principal argument advanced
| by the supporters of capital punishment
was that il acted as a crime deterrent
but he doubted that it ever had deferred
or that it now deferred He cited a
number OF incidents from history to
show that even in the DAYS when pen
alties inflicted for crime were most Sc
we're the extreme measures taken failed
to suppress crime. Coming down to the
present day he said;
Il am not going TO attempt TO support
my arguments by elaborate quotations
from statistics. There are certain fig
ures. however. which are rather signiii-
cant, ii not conclusive. ! refer TO the
statistics of the federal census bureau Of
1910. with reference TO the effect OF the
death penalty upon the commission of
murder. These statistics show that in
"a Of the states having the highest num-
Der Of homieides per capita in the popu-
lation. there Is not a single state that
has abolished capital punishment. These
n are those which have enforced the
death penalty from the time Of their
organization. Following these q states
come three states. Illinois, Maryland and
Kansas. all having the same number per
capita Of homicides. OF these states,
Kansas has abolished the death penalty;
Illinois and Maryland have retained il.
"Iet us now consider the - states
which these statistics show 20 have the
lowest number OF homicidcs per capita.
Among these 20 are al the states but
one lkansssl that have abolished CAPT
tai punishment. The federal statistics.
70 my mind show that capital punish
ment has failed 70 act az a deterrent
and that in the states where il has been
abolished. there i a less per capits Of
homicides than in the states where il
las been retained.
ZIP 20 1913. six states had abolished /
,apital punishment, Washington followed /
IN that wear. The United States sta
.istics Of 1919 show that Eve Of these
re among the ~ with the lowest per
,apita OF homieides each with a per-
,entare less than % In each 10000 81
population. The other non capital pun.
shmeut state kansss-hsd tho samf
lrr capita ~ homieides e. lllinois and
Maryland. both capltal Punishment
fates
ILLINOIS was disgrnced NJ G5I homi
ides u 1910 sftef century 0f eH
orrsment ~ capital punishment. while
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