The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-04-03
PRESS COMMENT
Women Murderers and the Law

The frequency of cases where women
take the law in their own hands and
avenge the real or fancied wrongs they
have sustained at the hands of men
should cause the people of this land to
pause and ponder.
There is nothing so valuable to ma
ton as it's womanhood; no country can
rise to higher plane than that which
is reached by the overwhelming major
ity Of it's women. To woman nature
has bestowed the honor and privilege
of renewing the life of the race, watch
ing over it's infancy and guiding its
youth, thereby confiding to her the
responsibility of shaping and fashion
ing succeeding generations. To her is
confided the almost divine power of
creating the body and molding the
mind and character of the men and
women who follow, age after age, one
generation after another upon the
stage Of life. Great as is this privilege
still greater is the responsibility. We
are almost~overwhelme in our won
derment when we contemplate the stu
pendous responsibility that the Crea-
tor has imposed upon woman in max
ing her the builder of souls.
Woman being, as it were, the hand
maiden of God, it Is only right that she
should aim to live up to her high es-
tate, and it is the duty of man to as
sist her in so doing; but under circum-
stances such as exist today, the wom-
anhood of America Is not squaring
fully with the evident purpose of her
Maker. For some of these circum-
stances she is herself TO blame, but
many Of them have been forced upon
her 1t is not the purpose of the writ
er to give a comprehensive survey of
the things which have of late so in
fluenced the character of women, as it
is his intention to hold closely to one
point: The standing of women muir
derers before the law and their influ-
ence upon the life of the nation.
The case of Clara Smith Hamon
furnishes an illustration which may
we'll be used to exemplify the error of
placing woman above the law. PoIti-
cally, men and women in the United
States stand upon an equality, and
there should be but one law for both.
Each should be held to a strict ac-
for all actions affecting
the welfare of the state, and justice
should be melted out irrespective of
the sex of the guilty person.
Clara Smith Hanon was a married
woman, bound, according to the laws
Of God and man and the VOW she took
at the altar, to cast aside all other men
and cleave only unto her husband. To
say that that husband had forfeited
the love of his wife by misconduct or
any other cause does not release the
wife from her responsibility, even
though all might be true that was said
in mitigation OF her offense she knew
that Jake Hamon, the man she killed,
was a married man and a father, which
knowledge made her equally guilty
with him when they formed their
alliance, and should have
been an estoppel against her making
herself his judge and executioner.
If the acquittal Of Clara Smith
Harnon meant only that the twelve
men who acted as Jurors in her case
sorrowed for the ,predicament in which
her own act placed her, and that their
acquitting her of crime in depriving a
human being of life resulted in moth |
ing more than giving her liberty, there
would be no necessity for this preach |
nent. But the acquittal Of this wom- i
an will have a far-reaching effect upon
the young womanhood of our nation |
and is therefore to be regretted.
1t has been announced that Clara
Smith Hamon has signed a contract |
with moving picture concern to write |
the story of her life and act it upon
The screen. She was not asked to !
make this picture because of her abal- |
hr1N Ial1
reason that she had killed a man. In