The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-16
LETTERS TO EDITOR
THE LATE HORRIBLE TRAGEDY


 While in sympathy with all in- volved in the tragedy that has shocked our community because of the trouble induced, know none of those sharing in 1t, so that what may say is not colored by personal or ecclesiastical considerations. Nor could considerations like these the least affect or influence me.
 The stage to which the tragedy with it's implied complications is brought is one purely of right and justice. It becomes now public af- fair and one that seriously affects the welfare of society, and in this ab stract way should be considered, en- tirely stripped of influences that might sway either side involved. In other words, the tragedy being com nitted, 1t is consigned entirely to the judicial realm, and should be thought of and dealt with in no other way. Whatever circumstances or conditions of mitigation for either side enter into the case will become elements involved in the trial and these should not be suffered to sway our people either way till all the facts are fully known.
 As looked at through the eyes of the law, Mere are the bare facts: man, not priest, nor a Catholic has been shot and killed on his front porch. In one man thus killing an- other, a capital offense has been com mitted. Under our laws the slayer is to be tried, and should be tried purely on the merits of the case, and in view of the crime committed. To under take to lug into the case either in the way of mitigation or condemnation questions that have nothing what national, or ecclesias tical. or pollti- cal, or social, or racial, or any other save that which pertains immediately to the act itself, is to befog or pre- judge, and tends to defeat the ends of justice. The law is not so much cocnerned about who has been killed as 1t is with what has been killed
 It Is a man, and no matter if he were a MohAmmedan, Buddhist. Pa gan, or infidel, the fact remains that a man has been killed, the law vio- lated. and the intervention of society in it's own defense through the courts is Called for. The question should be fairly considered in this way alone, and not in the way of Protestant preacher who felt himself aggrieved shooting a Catholic priest. The law Is no respecter of persons, and can slider mere accidents like those named. What the public should de- mand is simple justice as defined by the law.
 Neither can the court or the jury afford to be the least swayed or in fluenced by extraneous matters, Courts and juries have nothing to do with creeds and denominations. To consider in the smallest degree mat ters like these is to becloud the ques- ton, disturb the balance of justice and defeat the ends of the law. The man committing the deed is either guilty of murder or he is not. To de- termine this the case must be sifted with the bare fact before all that one man has killed another, no matter who or what either was or is.
 It would seem that no worthy citi- zen should hold any other view. We cannot have double standard of jus tce nor a shifting standard. which is no standard at all. The case should be sheared of everything else than that of desire and purpose to reduce it to the bare abstraction of crime against society and determination of probing 1t to the bottom ir order that justice be meted out. One man has been Killed by another on his front porch--that is a fixed fact. The maa who committed the teei came with a pistol from the street and committed the act The law of the and has been Noiaeeu' Oh facts all are agreed. The man Killed is in his grave, the other awaits trial Dispossessed of all else, the case should thus be viewed, and the trial should proceed on this as a bare ab- straction uncolored by any extraneous or conventional circumstances. It is to be hoped that in no other way will the trial be entered on and be prose- cuted throughout. There should be no passion, prejudice, or prepossession of sentiment in a case which not only tests, but involves the genuine virtue and stability of our laws.