Evening star., 1924-09-11
DOUBLE STANDARD
IN LAW IS CHARGED
Press Regards Caveriy RuI-
ing as Creating Disre-
spect for Courts.
BY ROBERT T. SMALL.

Bf ROBERT H. SM ALI.
NEW YORK. September 11.-Life
imprisonment in the cases of "Dickie'
Loeb and Babe" Leopold may be
justified only if these two youthful
murderers are placed in a contine-
ment so deep that they will never be
heard of again. This is preponder-
ant note in editorial comment, gath
cred from all sections of the United
States today on the action of Judge
Caverly in the famous Chicago muir
der case.
But public opinion SCOTS at the idea
that any such thing will happen. Life
imprisonment has ceased to be life
imprisonment. The money which per-
mitS rich criminals to hire expert
lawyers and sympathetic alienists
often follows up this advantage by
gaining eventual freedom 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 cap
ital punishment was not deserved in
this case, then it should be abolished.
There could be no more atrocious
crime than the kidnapping of little
Robert Franks and his cold blooded,
misunderstanding murder. If the peo-
pie of the United States as whole
sustain Judge Caverly's view, they
clearly favor the abolition Of the GAL
lows and the electric chair, to say
nothing of Nevada's new-fangled
lethal chamber.
See Rich Favored.
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
l. IL,
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 effectually has
stopped the cynical from making
just that claim, for he threw aside all
the fanciful defense set up by the ex
pensive alienists and the astute law
yers and predicated his action solely
upon the youth of the defendants. If
two poor boys of Is and 19 had come
before him, some editors are gen.
erous enough to say Judge Caverly's
action would have been the same.
This generosity is the exception in
the comment, not the rule. Condem-
nation of the tenderness of the
judge rings out from many sections,
while a few newspapers go so far as
to hurl the word friendly" 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 attention they
have received these last few months.
Such a state of affairs is held to be
abhorrent. The arrogant, defiant and
cynical attitude of the boys in court
their Willingness to bet before the
sentence that they would receive
nothing worse thar life Imprisonment
these are some of the things that
turned any possible sympathy away
from them.
Judges Task Too Big.
Newspapers as we'll as many judges
who have been interviewed hold the
view that too much responsibility
was placed upon Judge Caverly. 1t
is agreed that no State should per-
murder to plead guilty. If sentence
of death follows such plea, it
smacks of legal suicide. If an afro
cious crime is palliated by life i'm
prisonment, it shows that tender
hearted judges do not always follow
the intent of the law. Most of the
States require jury trial in first de-
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
killing early
If, however, these two arch fends
are placed virtually incommunicado
in the penitentiary if they really are
entOnhed for he resf Of their t1Ira1
lives. If two such egotists can be
swallowed up by the gray prison
walls and be forever forgotten, then
the punishment may have fitted the
crime. Otherwise the chance for Illi-
neis to sustain the majesty of the law
throughout the land has been lost.
Times Defends Caverly.
The New York Times says Judge
Caverly felt hanging of two youths
was not upheld by modern practice
or opinion, and draws the conclu-
sion that such a decision for such
a reason will break the charge that
Leopold and Loeb escaped death
solely because their families were
rich enough to pay large fees to
lawyers. What the lawyers did or:
said for the defense went for moth
ing. Judge Caverly simply ignored
It. Had the youthful murderers been
poor ana lFl6nOleSS Iney "OulQ nave
escaped capital punishment precisely
as Leopold and Loeb have escaped it,"
The Times holds, however, that ito
Justify life Imprisonment instead of
execution for SO monstrous crime it
must mean life eXtinguishment for
the murderers, virtually an extinction
for them as complete as death"
The Baltimore Evening Sun believes
that if the case had been brought be-
a ichf
greater likelihood of capital punish
ment, but it laments that even in
cases of jury trial it is becoming
more and more difficult to exact the
extreme penalty of the law
See. All Murdererx Alike.
The Portland, Greg, Joprnal agrees
that Loeb and Leopold were not
normal, but it asks. What mur-
derer isn't abnormal? If abnormal
ity is to be considered as an excuse
for murder, where will society get
projection? The inference is that the
bloodier and more vicious the less
reason for the extreme penalty"
X The Salt Lake Deseret News takes
the philosophical view that the de-
.cision should be accepted and adds:
FLet Illinois be sure that Loeb and
ileopold are kept where they can do
mo more harm. and let the world get
Rback to normal thought again
! The San Francisco Bulletin fears
that the social political effects of
Judge Caverly's verdict are griev-
ously to be dreaded. 1t will be wide
1y regarded as illustrating a fatal
weakness and moral defect in our
system. 1t will augment the growing
sense that there is one law for the
obscure and another for the socially
powerful"
. Tho Kansas Cifv Post holdlv as