The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-08-31
WHERE RESTS THE BLAME

Following the deporable lynchings
at Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Gov
ernor Robertson, in both an open
statement and a letter addressed to
the attorney general, says that the
sheriffs of both places should be
removed from office.
We do not like TO take issue with
the chief executive of this great state,
but We feel constrained to entertain
views diametric 10 those which he
evidently permits himself TO be actu'
ated by when he voices such an
opinion.
The sheriffs of Oklahoma and Tul.
sa counties are both sworn officers
Of the law, officers sworn to enforce
the laws majesty and to protect the
lives of all prisoners in their custody.
The sheriff of any county is supposed
to go TO extreme limits in seeing that
the life of the most corrupt Grim
inal is held sacred, that the life OF
the most brutal murderer is safe
guarded until the law steps in and
says what punishment shall be ad-
Judged and enforced.
Eut the history Of the exercise of
the pardoning power of the governor
Of Oklahoma has not been such as to
encourage any officer to ieopardize-
perhaps sacrifice the lives of his
deputies, his own life and the lives
of the citizen who may seek to take
the law into their own hands, be
cause Of continued miscarriage of
justice in Oklahoma.
1t is an open secret, known far
ard near throughout the United States
that it is n hard matter to get trial
Jury in any county in this state
that will find q murderer gA!ty in
the first degree and fix his punish
ment a; ttoth. 1t is also an open
secret, known everywhere, that the
different governors of Oklahoma have
reprieved more murderers and pardon
~ anl naroed more had men con-
victed of other crimes, than have
the governors Of almost any other
state in the union.
The Ardmorete ventures the asser.
tisn that the record, Il Lee Cruce,
while he occupied the office Of gov.
ernor of Oklahoma shows him to
have saved al too many convicted
murderers from the halters moose,
or the electric chair,
Cruce did not Leli,ve in capital
punishment and hs?ause he did not,
he SET his beliefs and his conscientious
scruples against tha findings of the
trial tries, tn Uid courts, and the
affirm, tions Of thc court of criminal
appeals.
No matter what the statute gov
erning the punishment of those found
guilty Of murder might read, no
matter what the finding of the trial
jury might be-, no matter what the
Judgment of the trial judge might be,
no matter how concisely the court of
criminal appeals might state the law
and review the history of a case in
affirming the action of the lower
court, bringing out proof that there
was no error or prejudice shown in
the matter of evidence admitted and
instructions given. Governor Cruce
did not believe that the law should
take human life so he exercised his
prerogative and commuted the sen.
tences Of scores Of criminals whom
the trial juries and the trial courts
and the appellate courts said. should
pay to an outraged law the extreme
penalty.
And, possibly knowing Of all this,
the trial juries have become all too
lenient, and too prone to acquit those
who have come before them on mur.
der charges, just as they have be-
come too prone TO find hi.jackers
and other criminals mot guilty" be-
cause the men who compose the trial
juries all over the state, read the
daily papers and know all about the