Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-27

Movements In Kansas, Michigan and
| other States in the direction Of more
drastic treatment of Ogine, especially
by the revival Of the death penalty
/ have been productive of controversy
Supporters of capital punishment are
moved by evidence ofssinister influences
| from gangland, while those who oppose
the extension Of the policy OF execution
give greater emphasis to speed. hold
ing that juries hesitate to vote for the
infiictiOn of the death penalty.
Observing the conflict between the
Governor Of Kansas and the Legislature
Of that State, the st. Paul Dispatch
says: THE Governor Of Kansas, no
doubt, feels the emergency of the crime
situation as keenly as the lawmakers.
But apart from humanitarian and other
! similar objections to capital punish
ment, there is the plain practical OBJ
lection that the machinery of justice
Is not, faltering for lack Of severity
in penalties for crime. The present
crime emergency If such it is, demands
not harsher laws but better enforce
ment of the law, not more severe penal
ties but swifter and more certain adj
miniStration Of them. The hangmans
moose or the electric chair would not
Of themselves solve the crime OF Kansas
or any other State"
Charging that In some large cities
the prosecutors office Is "a bargain
counter where crooks trade for penal
ties" the Springfield (Mass.) Republi-
can finds a difference in less populous
centers, but comments on the Kansas
situation: with capital punishment.
that State would convict and execute
far larger proportion of those charged
with 6rst-degree murder than New York
City OR Chicago does. Yet q just and
uniform enforcement Of such a law
seems to be impossible in the United
States as a whole. Owing to the emo
tionaliSm of the public, the emotion
alism of . juries, the professional wiles
OF lawyers for the defense, and the
elaborate structure of technicalities
within which justice must work-not
to mention in some jurisdictions the
favoritism, If not the corruption, of
which prosecuting agencies are capable
the death penalty fails as deterrent
certainty of punishment which is en-
phaSized by the Governor of Kansas"
Il X
Linking the Kansas situation with
that in Michigan. where the issue of
reviving the extreme penalty-after 80
years disuse-has been submitted to
referendum, set for April g." the San
Antonio Express offers the judgment:
Evidently the people generally are con-
WINGED that the gallows or the electric
chair speaks the only language which
gangdom can understand. 1t is better
to take few murderers' lives legally,
they argue, than to tolerate the staying
of innocent citizens. Besides, there
are crimes-like that Of Edward Hick-
man in Los Angeles q few years ago. or
the ropant murder nf 10-Uaar-0Id Wiz
GINA Brooks in San Diego-for which
the death penalty seems the only
adequate punishment"
1.-THE experiences OF these two States"
thinks the Peoria Star, ARE highly in
tereSting in view of the fact that bills
have been presented at Springfield abol-
ishing capital punishment in Illinois.
Kansas, after an experiment of 81 years,
and Michigan, for 100 years. have come
to the realization that capital punish
ment Is necessary for a proper handling
Of the crime situation. The experience of
these two States should have consider
able influence in showing Illinois legis-
lators the way to vote. The crime
situation Is serious not only in our own
State, but throughout the Nation. It
Is contest for survival of society or of
the criminal and the present Is no time
for temporizing with the gangster, the
BuIlIHAn ana Tie desperate Criminal.
What we need more than anything else
in the fight is a speedier Justice"
with Kansas and Michigan, records
the Newark Evening News, there are
eight States which do not impose the
death penalty. There are so crime
Jurisdictions in the country, of which
AZ impose the death penalty. The
changes toward the death penalty evil
dence q national feNulsion resulting
from the organized banditry and
racketeering with murder as IN incident.
For more than two generations Kansas
has not had an execution under State
authority, although men have been