Imperial Valley press., 1924-09-10

HleHtdl dHu IHoIdl tUilitIoH NOI IHe
two defendants.
''They have been shown in essen
tial respects to be abnofmal; had
they been normal they would not
have committed the crime. 1t is
beyond the province of the court,
as it is beyond the capacity Of hu-
man science in its present state of
development, to predicate ultimate
responsibility for human acts.
Ben4fit to Criminolcgy
..At the same time the court is
willing to recognize that the care
ful analysis made of the life his
tory of the defendants-and of
their present mental, emotional and
ethical condition, has been. of ex-
treme interest and is valuable
contribution to eriminology. And,
yet, the court feels strongly that
similar analysis made of other per-
sons accused of crime would prob
ably reveal similar or different alb
normalities. The value of such tests
seem to lie in their applicability to
crime and criminals in general.
Since they concern the broad ques
items of human possibility and
legal punishment and are i'll nowise
peculiar to these individual defend
ants, they may be deserving of leg
islative but not of judicial consid
Grafton. For this reason, the court
is satisfied that his judgment in the
present case cannot be affected
thereby
"'The testimony this case reveals
Il crime of singular atrocity. 1t is,
in a sense, inexplicable; but is not
thereby rendered less inhuman or
1t was deliberately plan
ned and prepared for during a con
siderable period of time. 1t was
executed with every feature of cal
lousness and cruelty.
Explains Law
sAnd here, the court will say,
not' for the purpose of extenuatiag
guilt, but merely. with the object
of dispelling a misapprehension
that appears to have found lodg-
ment in the public mind, that he is
convinced by conclusive evidence
that there WAS no abuse offered to
the body of the victim. But it did
not need that element to make the
crime abhorrent to- every instinct
Of humanity, and the court is sat
isfied that neither in the act it
self nor in its motive or lack of
motive, nor in the antecedents of
the offenders, can he find any mi
circumstances.
~ For both the crimes of murder
and of kidnapping for ransom, the
law prescribes different punish
ments in the alternative.
For the crime of murder, the
statute declares:
Whoever is guilty of murder
shall suffer the punishment OF
death or Imprisonment in the peni-
ientiary for his natural life, or for
a term of not less than IA years.
"If the accused is found guilty
by a jury, they shall fix the pun
by their verdict; upon a
plea of guilty, the punishment shall
be fixed by the court.
"For the crime of kidnapping for
the statute reads: II
Whoever is guilty of kidnapping |
for ransom, shall suffer death, or
be punished, by impl sonment in
he penitentiary for life, or any
.erm not less than five years.
For Guilty Plea
Under the plea of guilty, the
luty of determining the punishment
levolves upon the court and the
aw indicates no rule or policy for
he guidance of his discretion. In
his decision, the court
would have welcomed the counsel
and support OF others. In some
states the legislature in its wisdom
las provided for bench of three
Judges to determine the penalty in
cases such as this. Nevertheless,
he court is willing to meet his res
1t would have been
he path of least resistance to i'm
pose the extreme penalty of the
aw In choosing imprisonment in
stead of death, the court is moved
chiefly by the consideration Of the
age Of the defendants, boys of ls
and 19 years. 1t is not for the
.ourt to say that he will not in any
Ease enforce capital punishment as
IN alternative, but the court be-
ieves that it is within his pro
vince to decline to impose the sen
tence of death on persons who are
rot of full age. This determina
tion appears to be in accordance
With the progress of criminal law
all over the world and with the
of enlightened humanity,
More than that, it seems to be in
accordance with the precedents
observed in this state. The
records of Illinois show only two
eases of minors who were put to
Death by legal process-to which
1umber the court does not feel in
.lined to make an addition, - Life
Imprisonment may not, at the mo-
nent, strike the public. imagination
IS foreibly as would death-by hang
ng; but TO the offenders, particn-
arly Of the type they are, the pro
onged suffering of years Of con.
inement may well be the severer