Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-06

The suggestion that Leopold and Loeb,
Chicago murdererS, might be freed on
parole within a few years because of a
technical error in their commitment
papers aroused emphatic protests
throughout the country. Even the pos
sibility of such a development is dis
cussed with indignation, notwithstand-
ing assurances from officials and from
the lawyer who defended the prisoners
that there is no chance Of paroles be-
ing granted. y:
IF crime is in the ascendancy In
the Nation, and 1t obviously is" in the
factor has contributed more to such
condition than mollycoddle methods
that have so tempered justice with
mercy that the original purpose and in
tent of punitive law have been lost sight
of in wave of maudlin sympathy with
criminals That Loeb and Leopold are
reported as pampered pets in Joliet
Penitentiary is merely a matter of
prison control, but that they should
be released at any time to prey. again
upon their less fortunate fellows would
confirm the oft-heard suspicion that
justice peeps through her blindfold
every now and then in dealing with
certain classes of criminals"
"The States attorney has ren1i'' I'd
the pardon board" says the -'ort
Wayne News-Sentinel. that ID one
will force 1t to release these young
beasts who have been made pampered
pets at Joliet. Let us hope that the
public will not ever permit their re-
lease. If they had been sentenced to
death, as they should have been, there
would not be today any question as
to the extension of clemency."
X X X X
The Portsmouth Daily Times de-
clares that IF the papers in this case
are so worded that the ends of justice
are defeated and the order of the court
| made mockery, then it was not due
! to any mistake, but to something far
more sinister and something that should
call for instant and drastic investiga-
| ton" The Times refuses to believe
that in a case of this Importance,
handled by men of the highest skill in
| legal technicalities and of long expert
ence, there should be mistake of such
| a stupid character"
Considering the possibility that the
two youths may be "Set at large again
when but 10 years of an intended life
term shall have been served by them, y
the Newark Evening News comments
| 1T neither appears nor matters whether
that error was one of intention or of
oversight. In the eyes of straitjacketed
| law and musty jurisprudence it is
of greater Importance than guilt of a
crime which shocked the Nation and
| gave rise to a. series of related crimes
engendered In other distorted If some
times cultivated minds. Isn't 1t mon
| Strous?"
Since they were saved from the
moose after one of the most cold
blooded, brazen, brutal and wanton
murders ever committed" remarks the
New Orleans Morning Tribune, any
thing may happen. With most Of our
courts the criminals get high per-
centage Of the breaks And in Chi
cago, If the crime be sufficiently
revolving and brutal, they seem to get
more. Therefore no one must be sur
prised If Leopold and Loeb yet come
clear after serving six or eight years"
The Ann Arbor Daily News, however
holds that ito presuppose that request
| for a pardon in this particular case
would automatically produce one is to
give" the pardon board no credit for
realizing its responsibilities to the State
Then, the intention of the Judge when
he sentenced the youthful butchers to
prison is part of the record, and the
intention was for life,' without reser-
vations Incidentally, some in
vestigation as to why they were pam
pered pets of a supposedly penal inSti-
tuition might not be out of order"
THE trouble with life Imprisonment
as a substitute for the death penalty,
according to the Aberdeen Daily World
sis that 1t does not make final dispose
ton of the case and is an inadequate
protection for society, because 1t does
not mean what 1t pretends to mean