Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1927-08-25
LECTIONS ON
! ANARCHISTS CASE
d Criminologist Comments on
acco-Vanzetti Execution and
advances Arguments in Opposi-
lion to Capital Punishment
By ALBERT P. VAN DUSEN, Ph.D.
professor of Sociology and Instruc-
tor in Criminology, Syracuse Uni
versity, Syracuse, N. "

tor in Criminology, Syracuse Uni
versity, Syracuse, N. "
The Sacco-V -Vanzetti case, now
world-renowned, has come to close
with the electrocution of the two
Italian anarchists, convicted of first
degree murder. The universal and
varied interest in the whole affair
justifies one more statement in re-
gard to it. My intention is not to go
into the merits of the case, or ex-
press view as to the condemned
mems guilt or innocence, but to
point out the lessons which scien-
tific criminologist would naturally
draw. And in so doing, it is almost
unnecessary to say that the editor of
The Democrat is in no wise respon-
sible for the views expressed.
1t may strike the reader as hard
attitude to say, first of all, that from
any large viewpoint, it really does
not matter when a few lives more or
less are snuffed out. Those who
contend strongly against capital
punishment should remember that
only a trifle over hundred murder
ers are executed in the whole United
States each year. Compare this
figure with those for the other life
destroying agencies. Homicides in
Texas alone take over one thousand
lives year. The automobile in New
York State, if | remember correctly,
took toll of over two thousand
lives last year. Industrial accidents
and diseases cripple, incapacitate or
kill over a half million people annu-
ally-more than the casualties on
both sides for any year of the Civil
war from 1861 to 1864. The deaths
caused by the recent World war
probably totailed about 30,000,000.
And the regular destruction OF life,
of all ages, by our cruel mother ma
ture through disease, far exceeds the
butchery OF the World war.
And yet the .Sacco-Vanzett'l trage-
dy is quite thought provoking. To
the writer, it brings vivid evidence,
among many of it's lessons, of the
general failure of our much-vaunted
system of crimina | judicial pro-
cedure. From start to finish, the
method of dealing with crime is un-
successful. To begin at the begin
ming, the detection of crime and ap-
prehension of the criminal is still in
the hands of bunglers. Police and
detectives in general are poorly paid,
poorly trained and incompetent.
Then there is the failure of circum-
stantial evidence-conceded even by
some members of the legal profess
sion. Most damaging evidence of
this kind often fails to prove guilt;
and this fact alone should lead to the
abolition of capital punishment. The
case of these Italians reveals also
the difficulty of eliminating preju-
dice from the proceedings. Men of
ability and publicly esteemed, like
Governor Fuller, Presidents Lowell
and Stratton, arraigned themselves
against these unfortunate men; on
the other side, doubling their guilt,
were arrayed an army of men and
women of equal fame and talent,
as "The Nation" so truthfully points
out in a recent editorial. Brilliant
men cannot divest themselves of po-
litical prejudice, particularly when
these prejudices have an economic
basis. The laws delays! Here is a
case that dragged seven years. You
say that this proves the American
desire to give the accused man every
chance. Yes, and it also proves that
we lose an immense amount of
time and money, and stir up no end
of ill-feeling by our lack of rational
laws and reasonable modes of treat |
ment of crime.
Many other general lessons can be
indicated. 1t seems as if our Amer
lean people as a whole are uncertain
about the objects of punishment, or
at least do not keep them clearly in
mind in the course of trial. There
can be but two intelligent aims in
the handling of criminal: (1) the
restoration of the criminal to good
or his permanent re-
moval from ordinary society; (2)
the prevention of damage to society
by the criminal. Yet men act as if
their objects were to revenge them
selves in a pref Christian and barbar-
ic spirit, and get the offender out of
their way and out of mind.
Of course the whole question of
capital punishment comes up. The
stock arguments for capital punish
ment are: Q) that it prevents fur
ther trouble from dangerous man;
(2) that it saves cost to the state;
(3) that it deters others contemplat-
ing felonous and homicidal acts.
There are ready answers to these.
The first is true, but friends of the
executed man may avenge him; in
the case of these anarchists that is
especially likely. However, such
fear of revenge should not disturb
the ordinary procedure of our system
of +v,a foo1;ek