Daily Kennebec journal., 1924-12-20

award Friday night at Assembly hail
py = two TO one vote Of the Judges In
Then debate with the Deerine High
school negative team upon the aues-
YIN, Resolved-that capital punish.
meut should be abolished in. the
United States" The debate was Of
high order Of merit AMI the .arxu-
me-ts advanced gave evidence Of
much careful preparation upon the
part of the members Of both teams.
In rebuttai telling points were made
BY both sides in refuting the arsu-
ments Of their opponents SO that at
the conclusion Of the augmentation
the audience were undecided az to
the result until announced by the
chairman.
Superintendent Of Schools Fred w.
i w. Burrill acted as chairman and he
was assisted by Mrs, Edith F. Ell
more. OF the Augusta School Board
as timekeeper. The judges were
Charles l.. Andrews, lawyer; 3, E..
packard. deputy commissioner Of
education, and Prof. c. II. Morrow.
Professor Of Economics at Colby Col
/ Iege.
| Miss Marion White the first speak
er for the Cony affirmative declared
| that the affirmative-,yould base it's
argument on four points, first, that
Capital Punishment has failed in its
purpose to eliminate crime; second
that II is unfair in its application;
third that 1T Is not adaptable to va
rious degrees OF crime. and fourth
mat II Is not the best way TO protect
| society.
She declared that when a man
commits murder he is in such a men,
tai condition that II hc thinks of the
result or conviction OF the crime the
thought of life imprisonment will be
| enough, IL he does not think of It
then the penalty Is of no use.
Then too. death is death, there are
no degrees. so that it is impossible
to make the sentence fit the degree Of
crime. In the case Of an innocent
man unjustly convicted restitution
cannot be made under capital pun
ishment laws.
The first speaker for the negative.
Miss Dorothy Dean Of Deering high
quoted the Bible to show that capital
punishment is approved by the ola
testament and declared that the new
testament does not decry 1t. She ar
gued that In time OF war 1t 10 per-
missable for tho invaded country to
put armed forces In the field to kill
off those who wou:I destroy it, and
that the state should have the same
right in the case of those who would
destroy its citizens.
In Maine, Miss Dean declared, the
maximum penalty for both robbery
10 ir,,r ~ mt
thus making both crimes equal. She
quoted the Affirmative as wishing to
consider the innocent and stated that
in this regard the innocent public
should be considered as we'll.
Lowell Leland of Cony. tho second
affirmative speaker, quoted authori-
ties upon heredity to show that 300
of the crimes ARE committed by de-
fectives. A study by these authori-
ties has showp that IN nearly every
case of a man committing q serious
crime, he has appeared In the police
court for some minor crime before
the age of II year. Therefore at the
time OF the minor crime a man should
be given. an examination to deter
mine ~ he had the mental qualities
of q criminal.
IL he were found TO have such
qualities then he sould he placed In
detention so that he could not pass
on to posterity those undesirable at
tributes. Thus within a generation
or two by striking at the root of the
matter. crime could be brought to
minimum. whereas by capital punish-
ment 1t Is simply cutting off the top
OF a field weed which will at once
grow new top.
John Cooper. the final speaker for
the negative, was considered by the
majority of the audience to be the
best speaker, although no judges de-
cisioh was made public on this point.
He declared in opening that the neg
atiye were speaking only of premedi-
tated or first degree murder.
One of the faults he found with the
Imprisonment method was that lifers
are often pardoned. He quoted fig
ures to show that the average term
of q "lifer" Is only II years. He also
quoted figures to show that in, Maine
and Rhode Island. where capital
punishment Is not upheld, there are
mope murders than there are in the
other, New England states. where
capital punishment Is in effect. He
cited the Sawte}le case. In which a
man by that name planned to kill
his brother aud brought him from
Massachusetts TO this state, as he
thought. to do the deed. so that he
would not be liable to The death PEN
atty. Unfortunately for him he did
not cross the New Hampshire line
int. Maine and was executed In that
state. He also spoke of prisons and
their effect upon the prisoners. ask
ing whether they should be made so
horrible that the murderer would not
want to so there or II they should
be made So attractive tnat he would.
Sen minutes were allowed for the
main arguments and five minutes