The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-19

w Detroit as 4 result OF widespread unemploy-
ment, the legislative chambers and public auditor
inns of Michigan loud with intensive law
-and-order campaign.
There has never been as much agitation from the
big and little employers for capital punishment in
the history of the state Hanging appears to be
the preferred method of exterminating the men
and boys Of the working class who turn bandit.
The electric chair and lethal gas not popular.
For the first time since the original Michigan pun
shment law repealed, many years ago. CAPT
tai punishment bill passed the state house Of repre-
sentatves this winter, Sponsors of capital punish
ment at Lansing, hearing the tramping feet OF the
unemployed and hearing the choeric fearful de-
mands of the open shop employers, entered into
kind of contest in and out of legislative sessions to
see who could most adequately describe the puma
tive efficacy Of premature violent death And the
gallery, occupied largely by the wives other
female admirers Of these tin-horn trihunes Of the
ruling class, these trumpeting hucksters Of the
spoiled fruit Of a decayng social order applauded
shriIy at each demand for the moose.
The judiciary committee OF the state senate has
the bill under consideration This committee
appears to be dubious about reporting it out. In
the senate proper the fate of the bill would be
uncertain should the powerful capital punishment
lobby which is operating in Lansing force it on the
floor.
T. e whole criminal code Of Michigan is certain
to be frightened up in this law-and-order campaign.
A bill resembling the Baumes Law of New York
State is before the legislature. 1t differs materially
fror7 the New York law only in that the penalties
it preseribes little less severe. One purpose
of the proposed Michigan code is to shorten
the distance between the scene of a crime and the
cell assigned to the man who happened to commit
the crime.
The proposed method of shortening this distance
is to eliminate certain portions of the present legal
processes. In the language of this law ind-order
camnaign these portions that to be eliminated
are mere techncalities" or technical loopholes
thr' :gh which the guilty escape" Granted, how
ever, that the court is aniquated unseentific and
inefficient these technical loopholes" are never
theless details of the legal process which have
gradually been evolved safeguards for the
eused against INSCRIPTIONS prosecuting attorneys,
police officers and judges, intent upon their own
careers They have a special value such,
matter how tedious they may cause a trial to
become They there for the protection of the
innocent man who might otherwise be wrongly
victed, if there exists risk that guilty
men may go free at the time because of them.
Fear that innocent man may be convicted is
not being expressed in this campaign. The demand
is not for social justice. 1t is not for certain
or accurate justice 1t is for summary justice,
quick justice 1t is a compromise of legal form
with the method of eNtra-legal direct action en-
ployed by the Ku Klux Khan mob. It is as much
of a compromise in that direction the industrial
lists, the bankers, the merchants and the profess
sona groups believe it wise to essay at this time
And it should not be overlooked that it is only
the amateur gunman thief, the embittered
discouraged worker having his first desperate fling
along the predatory path, who viii be summaiy
delivered to the jaier under the proposed summary
criminal CODE The experienced professional gun
man with the high-priced jury-fixing lawyer viii
suffer little additional inconvenience, will the
wealthy psychopath with criminal inclinations.
The significance Of the proposed criminal code
lies not much in its specific language and mach
merry in its spirit and implications. This is true
Notwithstanding certain features that obviously
somewhat drastic in themselves Michigan trad-
lions have necessitated caution.
The truly historical prestige of the right of every
man TO trial by "a jury of his peers" for example,
is being definitely undermined Under the pro-
posed code defendant may waive jury trial and
elect to be tried by the Judge sitting as both Judge
and Jury. The provision in the existing law for
jury trial in all cases is "technicality" or "loop
hole" which the new code would not eliminate but
would qualify. And many factors in the situation
in Michigan at this time show clearly that implicit
in this proposed qualification of the concept of a
inf s..