Evening star., 1932-04-30
Kansas Lynching Condemned,
But Swift Justice Is Urged

The recent lynching in Kansas. a
State which has abolished capital
punishment, Of a paroled prisoner who
had attacked kidnapped child and in
flicted death is condemned by the
public. The incident leads to comments
urging that quick action in criminal
cases, especially kidnapping, be achieved
by American law officers and courts.
violence begets violence, and the
participant in a mob is brutalized by
his crime" says the Salt Lake Deseret
News With the advice that from this
outburst the judiciary should take a
lesson" the Deseret News feels that
there should be immediate trial of
prisoners" and IF they are guilty, q
speedy conviction" which brings a far
greater lesson" That paper demands
that "the whole underworld of criminals
shall know that justice is swift"
when more fear can be instilled
into the hearts of kidnapers there will
be less of the nefarious business, -
remarks the Charleston (W Va) Daily
Mail, recalling that about the same
time as the lynching in Kansas came
the report from Philadelphia of two
kidnapers, a man and woman, having
become panic stricken over fear of
CO1lOCQutllCcS SEILulR 1ItI
an 8-year-old girl whom they had kid
naped in Delaware" The Daily Mail
recognizes that the idea of the mob
was "an eye for an eye, and a tooth
for tooth" and declares: When the
victim pleaded with the mob for his
life. the answer was that he would
receive the same kind of treatment
he accorded his unfortunate and help
less victim. Could the murderer in
justice have asked for any other?"
at was deliberate, -blooded and
successful effort to inflict capital pun
ishment in a State where it is not
provided by law" remarks the Ann Ar
Dor Daily News, recalling: Capital
punishment was abolished in Kansas
in 1907. The last legal death penalty
was inflicted in 1870. In 1881 Iegisla-
ton was enacted providing electrocu-
ton for first-degree murderers, but this
was vetoed by the Governor" The
Daily News concludes: If the Governor
had not vetoed capital punishment in
| 1881, it is possible Richard Read would
not have been Iynched. The punish
ment he doubly deserved would have
merited death, and administered it.
Never can lynching be condoned. But
sometimes it can be understood.
A good way to prevent lynchings-and
they should be prevented-is to tighten
up on crime by legal particu-
larly on kidnapping. If the instruments
of Justice, including the courts, func-
toned efficiently throughout these
United States, there would be fewer
lynchingS than have occurred in recent
years"
THE fury of the Kansas farmers. -
comedies the San Francisco Chronicle,
was human, natural and right 1t will
be a poor world when such crimes do
not make mems blood boil. Yet it is
lamentable that they descended to
lynching the confessed criminal. No
sympathy for their victim. He richly
deserved his end. But there is regret
for the thing his lynchers have done to
themselves, their community and their
State. They have repudiated their own
system of criminal procedure and the
courts they themselves set up. The
contumely they throw on their own
machinery of law and order must fall
back on themselves, its authors. "
1t is true that Kansas law does not i'm
pose the penalty of death on any
crime. The utmost that could have been
visited by law upon this violator and
murderer Of little child would have
been life imprisonment. But this, too,
is the result of the sober Judgment of
the citizens of Kansas, who had them
selves agreed that they would not in
f1ict death for any crime-even the
monstrous crime of violating and
strangling a tiny girl. BY this lynch
ing these citizens Of Kansas impugn
their own prosecutors, juries and judges
and reject their own expressed belief
that they have an adequate legal system
Of punishment for crime"