Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-09-13
Evil Reaction Seen by Most
Newspapers as Result of
Sparing Youths-EnforCe
or Abolish Death Penalty,
Is Demanded
BY ROBERT 7. SMALL
Especial Leased Wire to the Journal-COpy
right 1921


! Especial Leased Wire to the Journal-COpy-
| right, 1924.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 11.-Life i'm
! prisonment in the cases of "Diclie''
| Loeb and Babe Leopold may be
| justified only if these two youthful
! murderers are placed in a confine-
! ment so deep that they will never
| be heard of again. This is a pre-
, ponderant note in editorial comment
| gathered from all sections of the
! United States today on the action
| of Judge Caverly in the famous
| Chicago murder case.
But public opinion SCOTS at the
idea that any such thing will hap
pen. Life imprisonment has ceased
to be life Imprisonment. The money
which permits rich criminals to hire
expert lawyers and sympathetic
alienists often follows up this ad-
vantage by gaining eventual free
dom for the condemned. Pardon
| scandals have been all too frequent
the country over.
Ironical in the extreme is most
of the expressed public opinion. If
capital punishment was not deserved
in this case, then it should be abol-
ished. There could be no more
atrocious crime than the kidnapping
| of little Robert Franks and his
cold blooded, Notwithstanding muir
der. If the people Of the United
States as a whole sustain Judge
Caverly's view, they clearly favor
the abolition Of the gallows and the
electric chair, to say nothing of
Nevada's new-fangled lethal cham
Der.
Bad Reaction Is Seen
There is but one clash of opinion
in all the gathered comment. A
great majority of the thinking news
papers of the country feel that the
reaction to the sparing of the Loeb
and Leopold lives must be that in
this land of freedom there is one
law for the rich and another for
the poor.
A minority of the newspapers
avow that Judge Caverly has estOp-
ped the cynical from making just
that claim, for he threw aside ali
the fanciful defense set up by the
expense alienists and the astute law
ye~s and predicated his action solely
upon the youth of the defendants.
If two poor boys of IS and 10 had
come before him, some editors are
generous enough to say, Judge Cav
erly's action would have been the
same. The generosity is the eX-
ception in the comment, not the rule.
Condemnation of the tenderness"
of the judge rings out from many
sections, while a few neWspa pers
go so far as to hurl the word friend
ly" in a fashion that is anything
but that.
The general feeling Of the country
seems to be that in prison the money
behind Loeb and Leopold will lead
to special favors for them. They
will receive visitors, will publish
their distorted views to the world,
and will in every way attempt to
feed fat the notoriety and public at
tention they have received these last
few months. Such a state of affairs
is held to be abhorrent. The AFRO.
CANT, defiant and cynical attitude OF
the boys in court; their willingness
to bet before the sentence that they
would receive nothing worse than
life mprisOnment-theS are some of
the things that turned any possible
SympaCny away from them.
"Do Your Killing Young"
Newspapers as we'll as many
judges who have been interviewed
hold the view that too much respon-
sibility was placed upon Judge Cav
erly. 1t is agreed that no state
should permit a person accused of
first degree murder to plead guilty
If a sentence of death follows such
plea it smaclls of legal suicide IF
an atrOCiOuS crime is palliated by
life Imprisonment, it shows that ten
der-hearted judges do not always fol-
low the intent of the law. Most states
require a jury trial in first degree
murder. Illinois. of course, does
not.
That youth should be the cover for
any sort of crime has led at least
one editor to remark that boys who
would initiate 'Dickie" and Babe"
should be sure to do their thrill-kill-
ing early"
If, however, these two arch fiends
are placed incommunicado In the
penitentiary; If they really are en-
tombed for the rest of their natural
i'NN9. - wv SutH tSCtiStS can D6
swallowed up by the gray prison
walls and he forever forgotten, then
the punishment may have fitted the
crime. Otherwise, the chance for
Illinois to sustain the majesty of
the law throughout the land has
been lost.
The Newark News is the most
outspoken in its belief that "suth
traVestieS as this will strengthen
the conviction already widely held
that there is one law for those who
can command unlimited resources
and the highest legal talent; another
for the poor devil who must take his
chance with the best he can afford. :"
The News further says that lin the
Judgment of the great majority OF
Americans the machinery Of justice
in Illinois has once more operated
to an end that comes close to ac-
! counting for the murde ridden GRIM
| inal record of Chicago and the re-
current blood-letting of feudal Her
rim, linked in q common barbarity."
Times Defends Caverly
The New York Times takes up
the cudgels against this sort OF COM
ment. 1t says Judge Caverly felt
that hanging of the two youths was
not upheld by modern practice or
! opinion, and draws the conclusion
that such decision for such a rea-