The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-05-22
WISE AND HUMAN JUDGE

The action of Judge Peter Huck, the MIS-
)ur jurst who dismissed the murder charge
ending against the 13-year-old chld-wife
mo slew her step-daughter, either accident
lily or intentionally was most commendable
nd marks him as a man who possesses a
uman heart as well as mind well stored
18th judicial learning.
Years ago we knew Peter Huck, knew him
ltmately when he served the people of his
,ction in the Missouri legislature, and knew
i'm as a man who was conscientious, scru-
ulous and of sterling worth and integrity
We knew him as man who discharged the
uties incumbent upon hm, with faithfulness
hich marked him as honest in the extreme.
Passing years in bringing additional hon.
rs to Peter Huck, have, we are pleased to
ote, left him with the same warm and sem
tive heart, the same determination to find
ustice abiding with Right.
Strictly constituting the law in its most lit
raj form, there was not, so far as the tele-
raph stories of the crime with which the
tile girl was charged, the scintilla of doubt
her guilt. Literally construed, the law said
hat she should be dealt with in the harshest
ossible manner. She had taken human life,
e shed in atonement There was no middle
curse. She was guilty, most guilty, and
pom her child head the expiation of her
ffense must fall
It mattered not, in the eyes of the uncom-
promising law, that she was, herself, but an
nfant, child possibly far beneath normal
rental development child surely too young
o discriminate between right and wrong; a
hid whose mind had not yet reached that
easoning stage which admitted of her con-
rolling her angry passions and holding in
heck her inclinations to retaliate and meet
orce with force.
The history of the case shows that the
hild-defendant shot and killed her STEP
laughter, Lilly, but few years younger than
erself, when the child refused to have her
air combed. The defendant alleged that
he shooting was accidental, that the gun
vent off when she attempted to break it. y
mother step-child, little boy, stated that
lis step-mother fired the shot with murderous
elaboration and intent. Eliminating the point
f the tender and immature years of the de-
endant, the matter sifted down, therefore
question of belief of the statements OF
he child-wife and those of the child prose
uting witness, neither of whom had reached
ears of mental maturity. Had the case
therefore,. have gone to the jury il is NOR,
han possible that the defendant would hav,
,een acquitted no matter what her age, be
ause of the nsufficiency of evidence upor
which the prosecution might have hoped /,
ecure a conviction.
But even verdict of acquittal in this cas-
would have cast an odium upon the fair nam
# the state of Missouri. 1t would hav
brown q cloud over the name of Justice an,
aused the rock-ribbed hills of the third stat
n the union to shiver and blush with sham
It the thought that court Judge could so ia
orget his duty to the Lord God of Hosts a
o place, for one solitary moment, the life O
child in jeopardy.
Technically there can be little If any dout
# the guilt of the defendant morally ther
Exists not the shadow Of doubt of her innc
ence. The law was broken. but the law wa
lot outraged when this little girl fired tn
hot which killed her infant step-child.
On the other hand, the law was not brt
zen but the law. and every sense of right an
wrong and common decency, was outrage
when the officer of the court granted
ense permitting this immature child, tn
infant in the eyes of the law, this l3-year-ol