The New York herald., 1921-11-13


States, Mr.. Barber said. This was to leave
bility in the mind of the transgressor
This is done by permitting the jury to
choose a verdict 1t is well known that
juries hesitate about pronouncing verdict
with sentence of death to follow hence
in the States where this power is vested
in the jury it is as much as to say that
capital punishment has virtually been
abolished"
How the Several Countries
Compare in Murder Statistics
Statistics are always a little confusing
but they need to be consulted when broad
statement like the following is made II
is that in the United States more men are
put to death than in all the other Chris
tian countries combined. England follows
and France is third. England has now but
three capital crimes. France has five. Our
criminal codes contain eleven capital
crimes varying in different States) which
are more than twice as many as those OF
any other Christian nation. In two of the
States burglar may be sentenced to death
and in three States manslaughter may be
punished thus summarily.
of II murders for every 100000 of inhabi
tants The decade before Italy's abolition
of the death penalty saw nearly II murders
per 100000 of its population. The decade
after the abolition saw this number re
duced to about IL per 100000.
Belgium has had no executions since
1863. The decade before the abolition of
the death penalty in that country there
we're 703 murders. Thus in one country it
would seem that the death penalty does
deter men from murder while in a neigh.
toring country it has apparently the oppo.
site effect
The hgures nearer home are more vital
t. us. There have. been more murderers
executed in New York than in any other
State of the Union, yet to-day there are
scarcely enough condemned cells in Sing
Sing to accommodate the condemned who
must there await execution.
These statements and corollary figures
we're given prominence during the last
session of the State Legislature when many
serious minded men and women made a
concerted effort to induce that body to
abolish capital punishment. In another
place the details of their strenuous but un.
SuCCeSsiuI campaign are given. Inc old
arguments and the old fear that to abolish
the death penalty would mean an increase
in the number of murders committed. and
that fear of death in the electric chair is
the only legal restraint against crimes OF
violence.
"lifer" in Sing Sing wrote what he
thought OF the movement undertaken to
abolish the death penalty, and published II
In The Bulletin Of the prison. in the hope
he said, that the views of convicted and
reprieved murderers might carry weight
with those who fought against the move
ment. He wrote:
Some of these men claim to be limo
cent, convicted by perjured testimony. bu,
others frankly acknowledge their guilt
These say that no thought Of the penalty
ever entered their minds at the time the
crime was committed
THAT the law prescribed death to mur.
derers all of these men know. but they did
not think of how they were to pay when
they were committing their crime. Some
we're crazed with drink. many blinded by
passion or jealous rage. All declare that
had the electric chair been before their
eyes, IL would not have stayed the impulse
to kill
And all of these men, including those
who fought for their lives through the
varied stages of legal proceedings. declare
there never was a time when they would
not have chosen death by execution to life
imprisonment"